Army Scout Rangers raided a suspected safehouse of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group in Davao del Norte last Wednesday, killing a suspect in a 2004 bomb attack.
Brig. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the First Scout Ranger Regiment, said they had received validated intelligence reports on the sighting of at least 10 Jemaah Islamiyah members and locally trained bombers headed by brothers Omar and Al-Al Venancio in Sitio Tagpa, Barangay Napnapan, Pantukan town.
Mapagu said one of his men from the 10th Scout Ranger Company was wounded in the 15-minute fighting.
The Scout Rangers recovered the body of a certain Abdul Salarbi, whose nationality was still being determined.
The military has tagged Salarbi and the Venancio brothers in the Feb. 14, 2004 bombing in Davao.
Found at the scene of the encounter were two M-16 rifles and a rifle-propelled grenade.
Prior to the raid, Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, Armed Forces spokesman, said the terrorist group was reportedly holding a planning session, which included former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who have aligned with JI, a regional terror network allied with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.
Earlier, a senior anti-terrorism official revealed that new JI members have lately been monitored in key cities in Mindanao.
He said they are now trying to determine if these JI members are new arrivals or fresh graduates of a JI training camp at Mt. Cararao in Lanao del Sur.
Early this month, combined government forces also raided a JI safehouse on an islet in Tawi-Tawi and found the four children of JI bomb expert Dulmatin.
The troops, however, missed Dulmatin who reportedly was able to escape aboard a motorboat.