ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Philippine military announced Wednesday the surrender of 11 Abu Sayyaf fighters, including their commander, in the southern Muslim island-province of Basilan, about 29 nautical miles south of here.
Lt. Gen. Alfredo Rosario, Jr., chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said the Abu Sayyaf militants headed by Abdullah Indanan surrendered Tuesday in the village of Serongon in Hadji Mohammad Ajul town. He said the group also yielded 11 mostly automatic rifles.
Rosario, quoting a report from Brig. Gen. Domingo Gobway, said the surrender of the militants was facilitated by the military in collaboration with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Basilan, one of five provinces under the autonomous region. “According to Brigadier General Gobway, the surrender (of Indanan’s group) came four days after the neutralization of ASG leader Radzmil Jannatul,” Rosario said.
Rosario was referring to the March 25 killing of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader in Sumisip town following a clash between the terrorist group and members of the elite 5th Scout Rangers.
Jannatul was wanted by the United States for the kidnapping of an American woman, 43-year old Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann and her son, Kevin, 14; and a Filipino nephew Romnick Jakaria, 19, while on a holiday in the southern Philippine port city of Zamboanga on July 12, 2011.
The hostages were forced into boats at gunpoint, brought to Basilan and forced to march to a camp where they were held until September 2011. The kidnappers released the mother on October 2, 2011, but retained her son as a hostage, and demanded that she pay a large ransom for his freedom.
Jakaria managed to escape from his captors on November 13, 2011; and the teenager eventually escaped from his captivity on December 9, 2011. Jannatul and three other Abu Sayyaf fighters Indama, Muadz, and Abu Basim were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for the kidnappings. (Mindanao Examiner)
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