MALAYSIA: 32 MILITANTS KILLED, RAISING DEATH TOLL TO 52
LAHAD DATU, Sabah, Malaysia - Security forces undertaking an offensive against armed intruders in the Sabah east coast killed 32 militants in clashes today at ground zero in Tanjung Batu near here, raising to 52 the number of militants killed since last Friday.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the police believed that a militant leader with the rank of 
general was one of the 31 gunmen killed in one of the clashes, at 11.30 am.
general was one of the 31 gunmen killed in one of the clashes, at 11.30 am.
"One militant was killed in a clash at 6.45 am. None of the security forces personnel was injured," he told a news conference, along with Chief of Defence Forces Gen Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin, at 5 pm at Felda Sahabat 16 near here.
Ismail said the security forces widened the area of their operation yesterday to 
flush out the remnants of the militants believed to be holed up in Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu.
flush out the remnants of the militants believed to be holed up in Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu.
The death toll of 52 included the militants killed in skirmishes with the police in Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu as well as Kampung Simunul in Semporna, he said.
"Kampung Tanduo and Kampung Tanjung Batu are still within the cordon of the security forces," he said.
Zulkifeli said the security forces engaged in the mopping-up and search operation had been advised to be cautious at all times to avert injury.
On the same issue, The United Nations has called for an end to violence in Sabah as it
appealed for a dialogue among parties involved to peacefully settle the
dispute.
In a statement issued from his office, UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon also called on parties involved to uphold international human
rights standards amid escalating hostilities there.
“The Secretary-General is closely following the situation in
Sabah, Malaysia. He urges an end to the violence and encourages
dialogue among all the parties for a peaceful resolution of the
situation,” said the statement issued Wednesday in New York.
Source: Bernama
MALAYSIA LOUNCHES RETALIATE ASSAULT ON SULU SULTANATE’S FOLLOWERS IN LAHAD DATU
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian security forces
have launched an assault, including air strike, to end a weeks-long
standoff with followers of the Sulu sultanate who landed in Sabah to
press their claim to the territory, Agence France-Presse reported
Tuesday morning.
"The operation to end the occupation began this morning," a Malaysian government spokesman told AFP.
And Malaysia's New Strait Times carried a statement
from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak(photo) saying: "At 7 a.m. this
morning (Tuesday), our security forces have launched an attack in
Kampung Tanduo," the village in Lahad Datu town where Raja Muda
Agbimuddin Kiram, brother of Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, and the more
than 200 people he led to Sabah have been holding out since early last
month.
"The government must take action to defend the country's dignity and
sovereignty as demanded by the people," Najib's statement said.
Communications Secretary Ramon Carandang (Photo), reacting to the assault,
said: "We've done everything we could to prevent this, but in the end,
Kiram's people chose this path."
Carandang said Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario remains in Kuala
Lumpur for talks with his Malaysian counterpart on the security crisis.
- The New Straits Times reported that "three fighter jets bombed Kampung Tanduo before troops went in."
- A separate report posted on the website of the Malaysian newspaper The Star said fresh fighting had broken out in Tanduo in what it called an "all out attack" to flush out Agbimuddin and his followers.
- “Gunshots were heard and fighter jets were seen circling around the Felda Sahabat area. Four explosions were also heard in Kampung Tanduo,” The Star reported.
- A day before, Malaysian media reported that seven military battalions had been deployed to beef up security in Sabah.
- Abraham Idjarani, spokesman of the sultanate, told radio station dzBB that Agbimuddin had phoned to inform them of the start of the assault, including the bombing by the Malaysian jets.
- "There is nothing to be done about that now," Idjirani said in a separate interview with AFP.
- He stressed that Agbimuddin's earlier announcement that they will fight to the end remains unchanged.
- "We are not intruders. They (Malaysians) are the ones occupying our ancestral land," he said.
- In a radio interview, Agbimuddin confirmed the assault and the bombing by the Malaysian jets as he vented his anger against the Philippine government.
- "Pinahuhuli ng gobyerno ang mga kasamahan namin kahit wala kaming ginagawang kasalanan (The government is ordering the arrest of our companions even if we haven't done anything bad)," he said. "Para kaming Pilipino (It's like we aren't Filipinos)."
- The assault came less than a day after President Benigno Aquino III again demanded that the sultanate order its followers to surrender without conditions.
- It also came 107 years to the day when the 1906 Battle of Bud Dajo in Sulu began. The battle, in which some 1,000 Tausug, including women and children, were killed by American soldiers is also called the Massacre of Bud Dajo.
Aquino on Monday claimed that the voyage to Sabah by the Sulu sultanate's followers was part of a "conspiracy" and vowed to get those he said had put thousands of lives in harm's way. However, the sultanate dismissed the claim.
A total of 27 people have been reported killed since the first clash between Agbimuddin’s group and the Malaysians last week.
The affair has been Malaysia's worst security crisis in years,
underlining instability and lawlessness in the seas between the two
countries and exposing lax security along its coast.
Meanwhile in Manila, President Benigno Aquino III on Monday reiterated
his administration’s theory that the ongoing crisis in Sabah was the
result of a conspiracy, and not solely the handiwork of Sultan Sulu
Jamalul Kiram III and his followers. He vowed to hold liable those who
had deliberately put the lives of thousands of Filipinos in Sabah in
harm’s way.
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