A top Abu Sayyaf military commander was killed by Philippine Marines during a raid on an encampment in the southern province of Sulu.
An “elite composite group” of Philippine Marines killed Albader Parad and five other fighters from Abus Sayyaf and the allied Moro Islamic Liberation Front during a morning assault on their camp in Maimbung. The military confirmed Parad was among those killed and stated it has recovered his body. One Marine was killed during the assault.
“We have confirmed that one of the 6 bodies belong to Albader Parad as confirmed by four independent civilian sources,” Lieutenant General Benjamin Dolorfino, the chief of the Mindanao Command, told reporters in a text message, ABS-CBN reported.
“They (Parad and his men) were the targets of this operation,” Brigadier General Rustico Guerrero, the commander of Joint Task Force Comet, the unit that carried out the raid, said. “We are running after the leaders of this notorious Abu Sayyaf group.”
Lieutenant General Dolorfino described Parad’s death at the hands of the military as “a very significant gain in our campaign against terrorism.”
“Albader is the most influential Abu Sayyaf leader,” Dolorfino continued. “This is a big blow to them, his death.”
Parad served as a top military leader for the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf. He also conducted kidnappings and executions. Parad ordered the executions and beheadings of seven Christians in April 2007.
Two years later, in March 2009, Parad orchestrated the kidnapping of three Red Cross workers. He threatened to behead the two Italians and a Swiss worker if the military attempted to track him.
“Remember, if they pursue the operations and they come close to us and another firefight erupts, I will behead one of the European ICRC hostages,” Parad told a local radio station.
The US and Philippine governments have put out a bounty of more than $100,000 for information leading to Parad’s capture.
The Philippine government has long been battling an Islamist insurgency against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front in the southern part of the country. MILF and MNLF have allied with Abu Sayyaf; Jemaah Islamiyah, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Southeast Asia; and the Rajah Solaiman Movement, a terror group comprised of Christian converts to Islam.
Abu Sayyaf, Jemaah Islamiyah, and Rajah Solaiman Movement operatives are known to shelter with the two large Islamist insurgent groups as well as coordinate operations against the Philippine government.
US Special Forces are based in the Philippines to aid the government and military in their fight against the al Qaeda-linked groups and to assist in humanitarian efforts. The Philippine constitution prohibits US troops from engaging in combat operations in the country.
3 Comments
The Phillipine Constitution is as stupid as the corrupt leaders who originally forced the Phillipines away from the US without a plebiscite.
http://arabnews.com/world/article20523.ece
Philippine government also confirming the death of Abu Jumdail, an ASG sub-commander and cousin to ASG senior leader Umbra Jumdail, in the same raid. Its also reported that Jumdail and Parad were together considered the masterminds of the lethal attack on the Green Berets on Sulu Island last September.
Payback’s a B.
Kudos to the the marines (whoever marines’). Nope me don’t think Philippine constitution caused the U.S. to close her bases there. Pro-communist lobbyists-activists had instigated to impose higher base rental but to refurbish the huge Clark airbase and strategic Subic Bay naval base back to operation after Mt. Pinatubo eruption was too costly to American taxpayers. The was also smaller John Jay airbase and Wallace air station. Philippine government had beg not to leave, counter-offered for lower base rental but U.S. decided to abandon the bases anyway. I know because my dad used to work at then Clark AFB.