Police kill two Sayyaf suspects

Police clashed with suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits in a coastal village about nine kilometers east of Zamboanga City, killing two and capturing four, officials said yesterday.

The gunbattle Thursday in Arena Blanco also left police Chief Inspectors Nickson Muksan and Rodrigo Marano slightly wounded, Senior Chief Inspector Antonio Clarito said.

Acting on an informant’s tip, police intercepted a group of about 20 gunmen who had just landed by boat. Two bodies were recovered following the clash, and most of the other bandits fled, Clarito said.

"We will file charges of frustrated murder and possibly illegal possession of firearms against the suspects," he said, adding that all the suspects were from the province of Sulu.

The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for kidnappings and killings, and has been loosely linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Last year, US troops trained and equipped Filipino troops who fought the rebels on neighboring Basilan island.

The Philippine military offensive also has been credited with ending a year-long kidnapping spree by the rebels who abducted more than 100 people, including three Americans.

One of them was beheaded by the rebels, another shot dead during a rescue attempt and his wife wounded but rescued.

Last Wednesday the government expelled an Iraqi diplomat in Manila for allegedly consorting with the Abu Sayyaf and "front organizations" of the Communist Party of the Philippines, also considered a terrorist organization by the US.

Second secretary Husham Hussain allegedly had telephone contact with the Abu Sayyaf and received a phone call on Oct. 2 last year hours after a bomb attack in Zamboanga killed a US soldier and wounded another. Three Filipinos were also killed in the blast.

His credentials withdrawn, Hussain left late Thursday with his family to head home for Baghdad. – Roel Pareño