Military beefs up firepower vs Abus

ZAMBOANGA CITY – More heavy weapons and equipment are set for deployment in Sulu as the military steps up its offensive against the Abu Sayyaf terrorists who are coddling the suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia.

"We are beefing up (our) firepower to flush out the terrorists in Sulu," Maj. Eugene Batara, spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command said.

An undetermined number of armored personnel carriers and 105mm Howitzer cannons arrived here on Saturday for deployment to Sulu to support the ground troops involved in Oplan Ultimatum against the terrorists. It was not clear where the weapons and vehicles came from.

Abu Sayyaf terrorists are believed holed up in the jungles of Sulu with bombing suspects Dulmatin and Umar Patek, both members of the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah.

JI is linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda global terror network. More than 200 people, mostly Western tourists, died in the Bali bombings.

Batara declined to give details on the deployment or on the reported changes in "operational plans’’ by March, but stressed that the small unit tactic appeared to be working well against the mobile Abu Sayyaf.

Military sources also confirmed the arrival of more Marines from Lanao. "The Marine movement is continuous from Lanao to Sulu with the same purpose of defeating the terrorists," the source who declined to be named said.

The ongoing Sulu offensive, which began in August last year, resulted in the deaths of top Abu Sayyaf leaders including its chief Khadaffy Janjalani and the terror group’s spokesman Jainal Antel Sali Jr. alias Abu Solaiman.

The Abu Sayyaf gained global notoriety in 2000 when it kidnapped a group of European tourists from a resort in Sipadan, Malaysia and brought them to Mindanao.

In 2001, the group snatched foreign and local tourists including US missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham and another American, Guillermo Sobero, from the Dos Palmas Resort in Palawan. The bandits beheaded Sobero. Martin Burnham was killed during a rescue operation a year later.