10 Abu Sayyaf rebels slain

ZAMBOANGA CITY — At least 10 Abu Sayyaf guerrillas and one soldier died in a two-hour gunbattle last Monday in the jungle of Parang, Sulu, military officials said.

Several extremist rebels and four soldiers were also wounded in the fighting, said Col. Hilario Atendido, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Southern Command.

Atendido said soldiers of the 77th Infantry Battalion were pinned down after coming across about 100 Abu Sayyaf members, led by one Raduran Sahiron, during a jungle patrol.

He said 100 soldiers reinforced their colleagues and routed the guerrillas.

The fighting came on the same day that Abu Sabaya, spokesman of the Abu Sayyaf, said American Jeffrey Craig Schilling the group is holding hostage was coughing blood and urged the government to immediately negotiate his release.

Sabaya gave the government 72 hours from 6 a.m. Monday to negotiate the release of Schilling and Filipino dive resort worker Roland Ullah.

In an interview with Radio Mindanao Network, Sabaya demanded that the government halt its offensive on Jolo.

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was taken by the rebels after he visited their camp in Jolo on Aug. 31. He was accompanied by girlfriend Ivy Osani, Sabaya’s cousin. Osani was allowed to go after the rebels seized Schilling.

Military officials have been puzzled by Schilling’s relations with the Abu Sayyaf but said they still consider him a hostage and will continue efforts to rescue him.

Ullah was one of 21 Asian workers and Western vacationers who were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan and taken to Jolo in April last year. All of the other hostages have been freed, reportedly in exchange for huge ransoms.

Meanwhile, soldiers gunned down three Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels yesterday in the second week of continuing offensive by the Army’s 6th Infantry Division against marauding separatist guerrillas in Central Mindanao.

Maj. Julieto Ando, 6th ID spokesman, said the rebels opened fire on soldiers patrolling in Barangay Lumabao, a secluded district in S.K. Pendatun, Maguindanao. Though outnumbered, the soldiers fought it out and killed three of their ambushers. — Roel Pareño, John Unson