Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday ordered continued operations in south provinces of Basilan and Sulu against Abu Sayyaf bandits.
President Arroyo gave orders when she met with the military top brass and local government officials in Zamboanga City to discuss government action against the attackers of Marine troops in Basilan, according to Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
Esperon relayed the President's information to reporters, adding that the offensives against the Abu Sayyaf would also cover other parts of Mindanao.
Military officials earlier said that a number of Abu Sayyaf bandits on July 10 joined some 500 the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in clobbering a band of Marines in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan. Of the 14 slain Marines, 10 were beheaded and mutilated.
Esperon insisted that the attacks were not directed against the MILF, saying "punitive action" against the secessionist rebels would be "deferred" pending a government investigation.
Thousands of military troops, including 65 men from the Presidential Security Group, have already amassed in Basilan, said Esperon.
The Abu Sayyaf is an Islamist terrorist separatist group based in and around the southern islands of the Philippines. The group has carried out bombings, assassinations, kidnappings and extortion in their fight for an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.
Source: Xinhua
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