Handout
file photo of Malaysian soldiers patrolling Sungai Nyamuk, a village
adjacent to Kampung Tanduo where troops stormed the camp of the armed
Filipino group, in Lahad Datu, Sabah on March 12, 2013. — Reuters picKUALA
LUMPUR, April 8 — An extra 1,000 gunmen from the southern Philippines
have broken through the sea blockade into Sabah to add muscle to Sulu
rebel leader Agbimuddin Kiram’s fight against Malaysian security forces,
The Philippine Star reported today.A representative from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Emmanuel Fontanilla, told the daily the fighters had been readying for battle since the onset of the conflict and managed to slip past the Philippine and Malaysian navies by moving in small groups.
“As per information, the armed men arrived in small batches,” he was quoted as saying.
The paper said it was unknown if the latest group had joined in fresh clashes in Lahad Datu last week, when an earlier band of 100 Filipinos landed on Sabah’s east coast to reinforce the so-called Sulu sultanate in its renewed bid to reclaim the state.
The elusive Agbimuddin, who believes himself to be the heir of a defunct sultanate, has been waging a guerilla battle against Malaysian security forces since arriving in Sabah on February 9 to stake his clan’s 17th-century ownership of the north Borneo state.
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