Philippine army rescues teen son of Indonesian suicide bombers
The 15-year-old has been rescued from the clutches of an Abu Sayyaf terror group subleader.
BASILAN: The Philippine military has rescued an Indonesian boy, the child of an Indonesian couple tagged in a 2019 church suicide bombing, from the clutches of a highly wanted Abu Sayyaf Group subleader in the southern province of Basilan.
Troops of the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion seized the position of Sulu-based Daulah Islamiyah-Abu Sayyaf Group (DI-ASG) subleader Mudzrimar Sawadjaan a.k.a. Mundi, and Basilan-based ASG subleader Pasil Bayali a.k.a. Kera, during a focused military operation targeting them at Sitio Lobloban, Guiong village, Sumisip municipality, rescued the Indonesian national on Saturday (June 3), said a military statement Tuesday (June 6).
Mundi had brought the Indonesian minor with him when he fled from Sulu to evade the relentless combat operation of the Army’s 1103rd Infantry Brigade.
Joint Task Force Basilan acting commander Col. Frederick Sales identified the rescued minor as Ahmad Ibrahim Rullie, a.k.a. Addih, the 15-year-old son of the late Rullie Rian Zeke, a.k.a. Abbang Rullie, 35, and his wife Ulfah Handayani Saleh, 32, the Jolo, Sulu cathedral suicide bombers.
Mundi, who had also been tagged as the mastermind and bombmaker in the 2019 attacks, had abandoned the young Rullie during his escape from the area.
Operating troops immediately brought the rescued Indonesian boy to the hospital for a medical check-up.
Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido commended the troops of Joint Task Force Basilan for successfully rescuing the Indonesian teenager.
“He is still young, and we are hopeful that with proper guidance and counselling, he will be able to walk back on the right path and build a better future,” Galido said.
Twenty-three people were killed and more than a hundred others were injured in the church suicide twin-bombing.
The boy and his family had travelled clandestinely into the southern Philippines through the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah before his parents carried out the church suicide bombing.
He has two sisters - one now in prison in the Philippines while another also rescued by the Philippine military in 2021.