Philippine military ends offensive against terrorists in Sulu

The Philippine military on Sunday announced the end of "Oplan Ultimatum", an eight-month mass offensive against the terrorists hiding in the southern island of Sulu, to pave the way for civic operations.

"We have to (change the military strategy)," Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. told a press conference in announcing the termination of the military campaign mounted by nearly 10,000 soldiers since August last year.

However, Esperon said the military is not reducing the number of soldiers in the island province. "There will still be combat operations," he said.

Esperon did not elaborate the reasons behind abandoning "Oplan Ultimatum" when he confirmed that at least three leading terror suspects responsible for the Bali bombings are still hiding in Sulu.

The combat operations under "Oplan Ultimatum" have resulted in the displacement of a number of civilians, Esperon said, adding " so we want to go into this areas and tell them that we did not intentionally displace them."

The military leadership wanted the troops to engage in more civic action programs in the future for the Sulu people, who have been helpful in terms of information about the terror suspects, Esperon said.

"We are about to switch to another kind of operations which will feature a lot of engineering, civic action programs and military action programs," said Esperon, adding that another name will be given to the new strategy.

In the combat operations under "Oplan Ultimatum", Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, two leaders of the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and dozens of other terror suspects were killed in Sulu.