Duterte orders troops to blast militants and their hostages
Manila - Philippine troops battling militants in a central province killed a key Abu Sayyaf commander who had been blamed for the beheadings of two Canadians and a German hostage and was apparently attempting another kidnapping mission, the military chief said on Wednesday.
Military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano told The Associated Press that troops have recovered and identified the remains of Moammar Askali, who used the nom de guerre Abu Rami, in the scene of the battle in a far-flung coastal village on Bohol island, where five other Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in the fighting on Tuesday, along with four soldiers and policemen.
Ano said troops took the picture of Askali after his death and that captured Abu Sayyaf militants identified the young militant leader.
"This is a major blow to the Abu Sayyaf," Ano told The AP. "If they have further plans to kidnap innocent people somewhere, they will now have to think twice."
The military chief said Askali had led several of militants who travelled by speedboats from their jungle lairs in southern Sulu province to Bohol province in an apparent bid to carry out another kidnapping in a region that is popular for its beach resorts and wildlife. Sporadic gun battles between the remaining Abu Sayyaf militants and government forces continued on Wednesday, military officials said.
At least 10 people has been killed since Tuesday in the fighting in Bohol, far from the extremists' southern jungle bases and in a region where the US government has warned that the gunmen may be plotting kidnappings, officials said.
Military officials said at least six gunmen, three soldiers and a policeman had died in the ongoing gun battle in a village in the coastal town of Inabanga. The island province lies near Cebu province, a bustling commercial and tourism hub.
National police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said troops and policemen attacked the gunmen early on Tuesday in Inabanga, where the gunmen had arrived aboard three boats. The gunmen took cover in three houses as the firefight broke out.
Government forces seized control of two of the houses, and the rest of the gunmen either were in the third house or had fled the area, Dela Rosa told reporters.
It's the Abu Sayyaf's first known attempt to carry out ransom kidnappings deep in the heartland of the central Philippines, far from its jungle lairs in the southern provinces of Sulu and Basilan.
Tourists
Bohol island, where one of the world's smallest primates, called tarsiers, are found, drawing many tourists, lies about 640km southeast of Manila. Bohol is about an hour away by boat from Cebu province, across the busy Cebu Strait, which is crisscrossed daily by ferries, cargo ships and fishing vessels.
Abu Sayyaf militants have crossed the sea border with Malaysia on powerful speedboats and kidnapped scores of foreign tourists in past years. In 2001, they sailed as far as western Palawan province, where they seized 20 people, including three Americans, from a resort.
"If we were not able to monitor this and engage them with our government forces, it's a cause for alarm if they were able to carry out kidnappings," dela Rosa said.
Ano said military intelligence operatives had been trying to track down the movements of the suspected militants, who first travelled from Sulu to southern Zamboanga peninsula. Intelligence later indicated the gunmen landed ashore in Inabanga, prompting military and police officials to deploy their forces, he said.
The gunmen travelled on board motor boats along a river to Inabanga's Napo village, where government forces assaulted them, military spokesperson Colonel Edgard Arevalo said, adding that troops recovered four rifles and a homemade bomb from the slain gunmen.
The US Embassy in Manila recently advised Americans to take precautions amid "unsubstantiated yet credible information" of possible kidnappings by terrorists in Bohol, nearby Cebu province and other central areas.
The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organisation for bombings, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings. Some Abu Sayyaf commanders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered troops to destroy the extremists in Sulu and in outlying island provinces, and has threatened to declare martial law in the country's south if the threat posed by the Abu Sayyaf and other extremist groups aligned with ISIS gets out of control.
Although the Abu Sayyaf militants have been weakened by years of battle setbacks, they came back to international attention when they separately beheaded two Canadians last year and a German hostage earlier this year after ransom deadlines lapsed.
The militants are still holding at least 29 captives in Sulu's jungles, many of them foreign tugboat and cargo ship crewmen seized at the sea border between the southern Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Cape Town
Farmers, Phillip Schutte, front, and Pieter Dooreward, back, walk outside the Coligny magistrate's court. (AP)
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Johannesburg - The Economic Freedom Fighters has called on the State to appeal the decision of the Coligny Magistrate’s Court to grant bail to two men accused of killing a teenager.
“The granting of bail to the two white farmers, Pieter Doorewaard and Phillip Schutte, must be seen as the reason community confidence has been uprooted in the rule of law,” EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said on Monday evening.
Locals took to the streets of the farming town about an hour after Doorewaard, 26, and Schutte, 34, were granted R5 000 bail each by the Coligny Magistrate's Court.
Doorewaard and Schutte are accused of killing Matlhomola Mosweu, 16.
They claimed they caught him stealing sunflowers on April 20 and were driving him to the local police station when he allegedly jumped off their bakkie and broke his neck.
According to Ndlozi, Mosweu's death sparked protests in Coligny in the previous week that saw the wrath of the community members demand justice for the brutal murder of the boy.
“These protests, following the bail being granted have now escalated to the torching of the farmer's house and two other houses in the area.”
Ndlozi said during Fees Must Fall, many student activists who were fighting for access to education were denied bail.
“Many of these activists were black, with no criminal records, and were not accused of serious crimes like murder. Yet, white men, accused of serious crimes like murder and attempted murder are given cheap bail,” he said.
A large number of police officers were in the town.
Earlier, a homeowner pulled his pistol at journalists who was trying to photograph his burning house.
He shouted in Afrikaans: "Where is my pistol, where is my pistol?" while chasing journalists taking pictures of the house.
He manhandled a photographer. A Netwerk24 photographer’s camera lens was smashed while trying to separate the two.
He also condemned the attack on journalists and has called on the police to arrest the man who was seen in video attacking the photographer.
I'm told AfriForum is sending private security to
#Coligny
to protect racist white farmers, it looks like will have to reinforce our people
— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema)
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