Filipino troops kill 4 suspected militants on resort island
CEBU, Philippines — After a massive manhunt, Philippine forces killed at least four suspected Muslim militants Saturday in a central resort province where troops had foiled possible kidnapping and bombing plots by extremists earlier this month, officials said.
Army troops and police killed ringleader Joselito Melloria in a gun battle with about seven militants near Clarin town in Bohol province. Melloria’s companions fled and three of them were later killed by troops, military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said.
“They dared to go to an unfamiliar area and they couldn’t find any support from villagers in Bohol,” Ano said, adding that troops were continuing to hunt down the remaining militants.
Melloria, a convert to Islam and a Bohol resident, had guided Abu Sayyaf militants from their jungle encampments in the country’s south to his Bohol village to carry out possible ransom kidnappings and bombings. Troops, however, detected the militants and killed four of them in April 11 fighting that also left three soldiers, a policeman and two villagers dead.