Abu sub-commander killed in Basilan - official

A suspected sub-commander of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf was killed following a predawn raid by Marines in the southern island province of Basilan Monday, a regional military commander said. About 5:30 a.m., elements of the 37th and 57th Marine Company swooped down on a suspected rebel lair in Sitio Sipit-Sipit, Bato-Batao village in Akbar town, said Lt. Col. Leonard Vincent Teodoro, commander of the 7th Marine Battalion Landing Team 7. A 10-minute firefight ensued, with the retreating rebels leaving the body of Abdul Karim Jamjali alias Commander Bakulaw and the slain bandit’s M16 rifle, Teodoro said. No government troops were reported killed or wounded in the said incident, he added. Citing initial information, Teodoro said the slain bandit was formerly associated with the late Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aldam Tilao alias Abu Sabaya and was one of those involved in the May 2001 kidnapping of foreign and local tourists in the posh Dos Palmas resort in Palawan. At present, troops are on their way back to the battalion headquarters bringing with them the body of Jamjali. Government troops have intensified their campaign against local terrorists and elements of the Jemaah Islamiyah in southern Philippines following the ambush on July 10 in Basilan which left 14 Marines dead, 10 of whom were beheaded and mutilated. - GMANews.TV