TWO members of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf were killed in a clash with government troops in Sumisip town in Basilan last Tuesday, the military reported yesterday.
Col. Frederick Sales, the acting commander of the Joint Task Force Basilan, named the slain Abu Sayyaf men by their aliases Dodong and Boy.
Troops from the task force were conducting an operation in Sitio Talisay in Barangay Upper Benembengan when they clashed with a group of ASG members.
Clearing operations later resulted in the recovery of the two slain Abu Sayyaf men in nearby Barangay Pamatsaken, also in Sumusip town.
Dodong is said to be a follower of Abu Sayyaf leader Mudzrimar Sawadjaan, alias Mundi, while Boy is a follower of another Abu Sayyaf leader, Pasil Bayali, alias Kera.
The group of Sawadjaan and Bayali was able to evade government troops who raided an Abu Sayyaf lair last Saturday in Barangay Guiong, also in Sumisip.
But troops found at the abandoned lair the 15-year-old son of an Indonesian couple behind the 2019 suicide bombing at Mt. Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu. Twenty people, including the couple, died and over a hundred others were injured in the attack.
