nsive against Abu Sayyaf militants, who have close ties to the regional group Jemaah Islamiah. Since Aug 1, about 7,000 troops have been fighting several hundred rebels in the latest push to flush out Islamic militants on Jolo, one of Abu Sayyaf’s island strongholds in the southwest of the mainly Roman Catholic country.
The reinforcements will be sent to Basilan island, near Jolo.
On Thursday, the military said it had killed 10 suspected Abu Sayyaf members in a clash on Jolo, just two days after Jainal Antel Sali, alias Abu Sulaiman, one of the top five leaders of the group died in a gunbattle in another part of the island.
“We’re shifting three battalions of the Philippine Marine Corps to Basilan next week,” Vice Admiral Rogelio Calunsag, the navy commander, told reporters at the main navy base in Manila on Friday.
“This is geared toward consolidating the marines in one area and boosting operations against the Abu Sayyaf coddling suspected foreign terrorists in the south.”
Another military official said the additional marines would “hunt down and neutralize” the fifth and last man on the U.S. State Department’s terror blacklist — Isnilon Hapilon.
“We’re about to complete our puzzle and Hapilon was the last remaining piece,” said the military official, adding the Abu Sayyaf leader was believed to have slipped back to Basilan in late 2006.
In May 2002, Washington offered a bounty of up to $5 million each for the capture of five Abu Sayyaf leaders who were behind the abduction of about 20 tourists, including three Americans, from a resort on Palawan island in the western Philippines.
Four of those in the list are believed to have been killed. DNA tests are being conducted on a decomposing body found on Jolo last month to see whether it is of Khaddafy Janjalani, the group’s chieftain.
The other three were Abu Sabaya, killed in a sea battle in June 2002, Hamsiraji Sali, killed in a clash on Basilan in April 2004 and Abu Sulaiman.
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