‘I had no choice but to shoot him’

Army Staff Sgt. Raul Suacillo tried to capture Abu Sayyaf spokesman and planner Jainal Antel Sali, alias Abu Solaiman alive, but when the bandit leader shouted and warned his comrades, he had no choice but to shoot him down.

Suacillo was included in the team of elite Special Forces that clashed with Solaiman’s group in Mount Dajo in Talipao, Sulu and was the one who fired the shot that put an end to the notorious bandit leader last Jan. 16.

In a briefing at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, Suacillo, 33, and his overall team leader 1st Lt. Almirante Mijares, recounted what happened during the encounter that led to Solaiman’s death.

A day before the encounter, Mijares received an order from his superiors to conduct an operation after getting intelligence information that some armed lawless elements were reportedly in the area.

After getting the grid coordinates of their objective, they trekked through the treacherous terrain that led them to the peak of Mt. Dajo, some 861 meters above sea level. Visibility was low due to heavy fog and the forest cover was so thick they could hardly see anything.

At nightfall, Mijares ordered his men to set up camp and then proceed to the target early the next day.

Getting to their objective was even harder: the slopes were steeper and the fog almost blinded the soldiers. But being specially trained for guerrilla warfare, the five Special Forces teams, composed of three officers and 57 enlisted men, proved they were tough enough to go on, even taking the longer route to avoid detection.

When they reached the target, Mijares ordered a team to reconnoiter the area to confirm the reports. Mijares then told his men to stalk these lawless elements and prepare for battle.

After positioning themselves in an unobtrusive location, the specially trained soldiers took time to observe the people in the area.

"There was someone coughing, another one was praying in Arabic, while we heard some women talking to each other," Mijares said.

Then someone got out of his bunker, along with two of his armed aides to attend to a personal necessity. Little did he know that he got too near to the area where Suacillo was hiding.

"I let him finish what he had to do. After that, I pointed my M-14 rifle at him and ordered him to come closer to me so I could arrest him and for the operation not to be compromised. But instead of obeying my orders, he shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!’ That means ‘God is great.’ It served as a warning for his comrades. After that he tried to run away so I had to shoot him. I saw him fall (into) a ravine," Suacillo said.

The bandit leader sustained a fatal gunshot wound in his back.

Suacillo, who was then a corporal, never knew it was Solaiman.

"After the pictures we took were verified, that’s the time that we found out that it was Solaiman because he was different from what we see in the pictures. He had grown a long beard, as well as his hair," Mijares said.

The three hour-long controlled firefight left three troopers from the 8th Special Forces company slightly wounded, while it was believed that the bandit group suffered heavy casualties as indicated by bloodstains that marked their trail as they fled.

After the encounter, there were reports that another Abu Sayyaf leader, Albader Parad, and Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert Dulmatin had been wounded.

But military authorities said the reports are yet to be verified.