AFP chief gives green light for Basilan offensive (tags)
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. issued an order yesterday to the troops currently on standby in Basilan to commence military operations in the island province. “It’s all systems go. The units can now start punitive actions against the perpetrators. The orders have been given,” said AFP Public Information Office (PIO) chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, referring to military actions against those behind the beheading of the 10 Marines during the July 10 ambush in Tipo-Tipo. Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, deputy chief of the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), was designated to head the newly formed Task Force Meteor aimed at capturing the group responsible for the ambush.
8,000 families displaced in Sulu fighting; OIC steps in (tags)
More than 8,000 families ( 40,000 people)have fled their homes as Marines and Army troops hunted down renegade Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commander Habier Malik and his men, who have killed 12 people in Sulu. For three days now, thousands of troops have been sent to Sulu to run after Malik’s band after he escaped when the military captured his sprawling hilltop encampment in Panamao, Sulu on Sunday. Reports said several MNLF commanders, along with an undetermined number of fighters from the towns of Pata, Daungdong and Capual in Sulu, are now fighting alongside Malik.