ZAMBOANGA CITY—At least 11 Abu Sayyaf bandits, including an influential commander, were killed during a military operation in Patikul, Sulu on Friday.

Government troops killed the bandits in an assault on the extremists’ lair following their beheading of a captive whose family was too poor to pay the P1 million ransom, the military said.

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Maj. Filemon Tan Jr. said 17 soldiers were wounded when hundreds of Army troops surrounded a vast jungle area in Sulu province’s mountainous Patikul town and clashed with scattered groups of about 100 bandits.

Tan is the spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) based in Zamboanga City.

Among the dead bandits was Amah Maas, a longtime commander of the group who had severed arms and had been implicated in ransom kidnappings.

In a statement, Tan said Maas was “said to be involved in the abduction of four people, three of them foreigners, in Samal Island in Davao del Norte” on September 21, 2015.

Several other bandits were also wounded when elements of the Joint Task Force Sulu clashed with more or less 100 Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sitio Makaita, Barangay Bunkaong, Patikul town, Sulu province, for about 45 minutes.

After the clash, the soldiers recovered the bodies of six slain bandits.

The deaths of five other bandits had been confirmed “by intelligence operatives,” said, Tan, adding:“Among those killed was Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Mohammad Said, alias Amah Maas.”

He said Maas, who had five standing warrants of arrest for murder, was also involved in the abduction of Canadians Robert Hall and John Ridsdel, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor.

Hall and Ridsdel were beheaded separately. Sekkingstad remains in captivity despite the payment of P50 million in ransom to the Abu Sayyaf, as President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted, while Flor was released on June 24.

Tan said soldiers were continuing the pursuit and clearing operations in Patikul, while seven of the wounded soldiers were now being treated.

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“Our troops are extremely motivated. They know that this fight against terrorism is greater than themselves. The 10 soldiers who were slightly wounded (even) wanted to rejoin the operation,” Lt. Gen. Mayoralgo dela Cruz, the Westmincom commander, said in the same statement.

Duterte’s order

Dela Cruz said the military was determined to fulfill its mission to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf. Mr. Duterte has ordered the military to destroy the bandits following reports that the group had beheaded an 18-year-old hostage.

“(The President) gave a specific order. The mission is clear: seek and destroy the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) by all means. That’s what we are doing and we will not stop until it’s done,” dela Cruz said.

Duterte ordered the troops to destroy the bandits in their jungle bases after the latter on Wednesday beheaded a Filipino teenager, Patrick James Aldovar, who was abducted near a police camp in Sulu’s main Jolo town last month.

Tan said that more than 1,200 troops, including special forces commandos, were involved in the assaults in Patikul and other Sulu hinterlands.

Thousands of reinforcement troops have been flown by C130 cargo planes to Sulu and nearby Basilan island to help in the ongoing offensive, he said.

Many of the troops were freed up from other combat zones in the country after Duterte declared an indefinite ceasefire with communist rebels, who are engaged in peace talks brokered by Norway with the government.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the US and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

The militants are still holding several foreign and local hostages in their jungle bases, including Sekkingstad, who was kidnapped along with two Canadian men and a Filipino woman from a southern marina in September last year. With reports from Leila B. Salaverria, AP

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