Sayyaf leader tagged in Palawan kidnap slain

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Soldiers yesterday shot dead an Abu Sayyaf leader wanted for the kidnapping of more than 30 people, including three American tourists, in Palawan in 2001, the military said.

Abu Sayyaf leader Suhud Tanadjalin was killed in a dawn firefight at his hideout in Barangay Lower Sinangkapan in Tuburan, Basilan, said Brig. Gen. Nicanor Dolojan, commander of the Special Operations Task Force-Basilan.

“We have recovered the body of the terrorist leader,” Dolojan told reporters, but added that three other militants escaped the Army dragnet.

Soldiers recovered Tanadjalin’s M-16 rifle and six long magazines loaded with ammunition.

Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang, spokesman of the Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command, said the ongoing operation against the Abu Sayyaf was to pressure the group to free a Basilan resort owner who it is believed to be holding captive.

De los Santos, who owns the Farmland Mountain Resort and Font Restaurant in Isabela City, was seized last Dec. 16, and his kidnappers have demanded P20-million ransom and an additional P300,000 for food and supplies.

The local military said Tanadjalin took part in the 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping raid on a resort in Palawan, where more than 30 people, including three Americans, were seized.

The hostages were taken by boat to Basilan, where one of the three Americans in the group, Peru-born Guillermo Sobero, was murdered.

Military operations in Basilan later forced the militants to flee to the main southern island of Mindanao, where a year later another American hostage, Christian missionary Martin Burnham, was killed in a military rescue attempt.

Burnham’s wife was rescued, while many of the Filipino hostages were earlier ransomed off.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of Islamic militants blamed for the country’s worst terror attacks and a string of kidnappings. Many of its senior leaders have been killed or are now in jail.

US troops have been stationed in Basilan and other areas in southern Philippines since early 2002 to train local forces on how to combat the Abu Sayyaf.

But the group, believed to have just a few hundred militants, survives with the support of local Muslim communities and its ability to raise funds with kidnapping stings.

Police suspect the Abu Sayyaf was behind a bus bombing in Manila last month that claimed five lives.

Meanwhile, the Zamboanga City jail has intensified its security after one of two detained Abu Sayyaf militants ordered by the Supreme Court (SC) to be transferred there from Basilan arrived last Monday afternoon.

Senior Superintendent Ester Pepito, warden of the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center, said Abu Sayyaf leader Bensar Indama, younger brother of notorious Abu Sayyaf leader Puruji Indama, was escorted by a 12-man team of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology from the Basilan provincial jail.

The younger Indama, who was captured following the April 2010 bombing in Isabela City, Basilan that killed 14 people, was also implicated in a spate of kidnappings.

Indama is one of two “high-risk” Basilan inmates ordered by the SC to be transferred; the other is Jhon Buhari Jamiri, also an Abu Sayyaf commander.