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PNP-IG agents gun down top Abu bomb maker

June 6, 2021 People's Journal 436 views

A PHILIPPINE National Police Intelligence Group-led counter-terror operation in Basilan on Saturday led to the death of a top Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker following a gunbattle with officers, PNP chief General Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar said.

The top cop identified the slain suspect as Aroy Ittot alias “Oroy,” tagged as one of the trusted bomb-makers of the late Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama, who was known to have masterminded a number of deadly bomb attacks in Mindanao.

“We have neutralized a top terror target in Mindanao following an intelligence-driven police operation,” said the PNP chief as he lauded the PNP-IG headed by Brig. Gen. Warren de Leon for engineering the operation, which led in the neutralization of the elusive Abu Sayyaf bomb-maker and instructor.

Members of the Regional Intelligence Unit 9 conducted the operation, with the help of officers from the PNP Special Action Force, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Bangsamoro Administrative Region Police Regional Office, the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group and the Armed Forces.

Eleazar said that the officers surrounded the wanted terrorist’s lair in Mohammad Ajul municipality and were about to arrest him on the strength of a warrant for murder issued by Judge Leo Jay Principe of the Isabela City Regional Trial Court.

“During the service of the warrant of arrest, the suspect fired upon the arresting team using his M-16 rifle, which prompted the operating troops to return fire that eventually resulted in the neutralization of Oroy,” the PNP chief said.

Recovered from the scene of the gunfight were one M-16 automatic rifle with four magazines containing dozens of live ammunition, one M-14 assault rifle with five loaded magazines, seven rifle grenades, a 1.5-liter plastic bottle containing ANFO being used by the Abu Sayyaf to manufacture powerful improvised explosive devices, and several mobile phones.

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