{"id":96551,"date":"2017-04-03T18:17:29","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T22:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=96551"},"modified":"2017-04-03T18:17:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T22:17:29","slug":"32-soldiers-wounded-as-military-offensive-against-abu-sayyaf-enters-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/03\/32-soldiers-wounded-as-military-offensive-against-abu-sayyaf-enters-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"32 soldiers wounded as military offensive against Abu Sayyaf enters Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thirty-two<\/a>
Thirty-two soldiers were wounded as the military operation against a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) entered its second day on Monday in Sulu province, officials said. (Photo: Department of National Defense – Philippines\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ZAMBOANGA CITY\u2013Thirty-two soldiers were wounded as the military operation against a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) entered its second day on Monday in Sulu province, officials said.<\/p>\n

Elements of the Joint Task Force Sulu (JTFS) launched an assault against the group of ASG sub-leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan in Talipao town on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirefight is still ongoing,\u201d Col. Cirilito Sobejana, JTFS commander told the Philippines News Agency on Monday, noting that the wounded soldiers were given medical treatment.<\/p>\n

Sobejana could not determine the exact number of casualties on the side of the ASG, saying \u201creports are still trickling in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will provide the data later,\u201d Sobejana added.<\/p>\n

The group of Sawadjaan has been tagged for the strings of abductions in nearby Malaysia in recent years.<\/p>\n

The elusive Abu Sayyaf sub-leader had been the target of the military\u2019s manhunt operations against high value individuals in Sulu after Sawadjaan emerged as the new sub-leader of the bandit group.<\/p>\n

Sawadjaan leads at least 150 bandits based on military estimate.<\/p>\n

The Abu Sayyaf bandits are still holding captives 28 people, mostly foreigners, and it was not immediately clear if the group of Sawadjaan is holding any of the victims.<\/p>\n

The JTFS has beefed up its operations against the ASG, which splintered into several groups, following President Rodrigo Durterte\u2019s order to finish the bandits in six months. The deadline will lapse on June 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur troops on the ground continue to intensify the conduct of focused military operations in Sulu and adhere to the rules of engagement to contain lawless groups and preempt the conduct of atrocities in the province,\u201d said Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to support the PNP’s (Philippine National Police) efforts against criminality and lawlessness. The entire Westmincom will be ready to move and react when needed,\u201d Galvez added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZAMBOANGA CITY\u2013Thirty-two soldiers were wounded as the military operation against a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) entered its …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":96552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[8741,2172,2173],"class_list":["post-96551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-abu-sayaff","tag-soldiers","tag-wounded","mauthors-darwin-wally-t-wee","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}