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Philippine Official Claims Top Abu Sayyaf Leader Wounded in Clash
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
l'Agence France-Presse

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, left, returns a salute after giving a medal of honor to a Philippine Marine soldier wounded during an encounter in Jolo at the Southern Command hospital in the southern port city of Zamboanga on Sunday.
Image Credit: The Associated Press.

The Abu Sayyaf has been linked by the U.S. and Philippine governments to the al-Qaida terror network.

MANILA -- AFP
A top Abu Sayyaf commander was wounded and six of his men shot dead in a weekend gunbattle with Philippine troops in the southern island of Jolo that also killed 11 soldiers, a military spokesman said yesterday.

Government forces led by the Marines raided an Abu Sayyaf lair in a remote area near Patikul Saturday where three Indonesian hostages and four Filipina Christian preachers are believed held, the military said.

Officials said 11 soldiers were killed and 25 others wounded in the gunbattle.

Armed forces spokesman Eduardo Purificacion said Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, a one-armed senior leader of the Islamist militancy, was wounded in the fighting.
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2002 © l'Agence France-Presse.

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