ISABELA, Philippines—A powerful booby trap bomb wounded 22 soldiers,
seven of them critically, as they patrolled a former stronghold of
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Basilan Tuesday, the military said.
The soldiers were patrolling the outskirts of a remote camp captured
last month from Abu Sayyaf extremists when the device went off, local
army commander Colonel Ricardo Visaya told Agence France-Presse.
The Abu Sayyaf had formerly used the camp on the southern island of
Basilan, to hide many of their kidnap victims until a large military
assault dislodged the rebels in March, Visaya said.
“The camp had a lot of improvised explosive devices planted around
it… to strengthen (the extremists’) defensive position. They are very
difficult to detect,” he said.
Visaya described the device as an old booby trap left behind by the
Abu Sayyaf before they abandoned the camp and was set off when soldiers
tripped on it.
Helicopters were deployed to airlift the wounded to a military hospital, Visaya said.
The heavily-forested island of Basilan is a known stronghold of the
Abu Sayyaf, a group founded with seed money from Al-Qaeda chief Osama
bin Laden in the 1990s.
The group has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine
history and has frequently resorted to kidnapping to raise funds, often
targeting foreigners.
Seven foreigners — a Dutchman, a Swiss national, an Australian, two
Malaysian traders, an Indian and a Japanese man — are believed to still
be held by the Abu Sayyaf and other outlawed groups in the south.
US troops have been based in the southern Philippines for a decade to help train local soldiers in hunting the Abu Sayyaf.
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Agence France-Presse | April 10, 2012 | Article Link
