As many of us know, the operation at the Mamasapano lair of the bandits to kill terrorist Marwan resulted in the death of 44 Special Forces commandos. Of the force that was supposed to have been deployed to protect the withdrawal of the force that was assigned to kill or capture the bandits, only one survived.

Last March 30, the 44th Infantry Brigade of the AFP was deployed to kill or capture Isnilon Hapilon leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group in Basilan who had pledged allegiance to the ISIS.

In the course of the operations, at least 18 AFP soldiers were killed, 52 were wounded. These figures are unacceptable in so far as any operation of any Armed Force of any country is concerned. 70 casualties means 70% of an Infantry Company of 100 men more or less. Initially only 5 of the terrorists were estimated to have been killed. Later the figure was raised to 9 terrorists killed.

… Rohan Gunaratna, international terror expert, in an interview confirmed that Hapilon is one of the ISIS leaders in the country. “Last year, four groups that are based in the Philippines came together. They unified at the request of the Islamic State, and they pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr-Al Baghdadi. They appointed Isnilon Hapilon the deputy leader of the Abu Sayyaf Group who broke away from Abu Sayyaf as their leader,” said Gunaratna.