Philippine Navy Intercepts Two Boats

By CELINE FERNANDEZ of the Wall Street Journal

 

Philippine navy ships intercepted two boats with 35 alleged followers of the self-declared sultan of Sulu, authorities said Wednesday.

Maj. Franco Alano, a spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command on the Philippines island of Mindanao, said the people were handed over to police in Tawi-Tawi, an island province of the Philippines.

"Police detained them for possession of unlicensed firearms," the military spokesman said. "They had in their possession six long firearms and five pistols, all with ammunition."

About 200 followers of the Sulu sultunate left the Philippines for Malaysia's Sabah state via motorboats last month to pursue a centuries-old land claim. The invasion turned deadly as the armed gunmen and Malaysian security forces clashed. With fighting in its second week, 56 intruders have been killed as well as nine Malaysian security forces and a boy who was a civilian.

The sultan—Jamalul Kiram III—wants dialogue over his claim, but the Malaysian government is treating the incursion as a national security threat and demanding an unconditional surrender.

Maj. Alano said the people taken from the boat "will neither affirm or deny they are followers of Sulu sultanate. There is a possibility that they are."

The military spokesman said the boats were headed toward the Philippines when they were overtaken. "They said they came from Sabah," the major said of the people on the boat. "It could be they [had] turned the boats around," he added, leaving open the possibility that they could have been going to Malaysia.

Malaysian security forces have said they believe they have trapped most of the remaining Filipino intruders in the jungles and thick bushes between two coastal villages in eastern Sabah.

 

This is just an example of a "small war", which occur all over the world every day. Good on the Philippine and Malaysian forces for doing  a good job. Now keep in mind, many times these forces are often more paramilitary than citizens in the USA are used to. In this story, I don't know.