Report: 4 suspected Kiram followers killed, 2 hurt in Sabah clash

At least four suspected followers of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, two of them children, were killed in a clash in Sabah Sunday, the head of Malaysia's armed forces said. Two people—a soldier and a boy—were also injured in the clash in Tanjung Batu, a report on state-run Bernama news agency quoted Armed Forces Chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Zin as saying. "The gunbattle went on for several minutes. The security forces saw one of the enemy dash into an adjacent house and torch it. They opened fire at the first house and then entered it and found the bodies and the injured boy," Zulkifeli said. He said the bodies of the fatalities—a man, a woman, a boy and a girl—were recovered but there was no identification document on them. A separate report on The Star Online quoted Zulkifeli as saying they may interrogate the injured boy. For his part, police Deputy Inspector General Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said they have yet to determine the nationalities of the four fatalities. Zulkifeli said the gunbattle occurred at 9:15 a.m. during a mopping-up exercise, where security forces were on the trail of two suspected Kiram followers. A soldier was wounded in the right thigh while the injured boy was found inside the house. The boy was airlifted to Sandakan Hospital for treatment. With Sunday's development, 42 bodies have been removed from scenes of clashes in Sabah. A separate report on The Star Online quoted Zulkifeli as saying the Kiram followers are now working in small groups of two or three. He said they would lure security forces into an area and start a gunfight, then retreat into a house. "[From there] one of them would run to another nearby house and set it on fire to distract our attention so that the others could attack from behind," he said. Once the house is on fire, the Kiram follower could escape by running to bushes or a swamp and attack from there, he added. — BM, GMA News