PHOTO | Malaysia releases pics of '13 dead intruders'

Malaysian officials hold up a picture that purports to show nine dead bodies piled on top of each other. Photo courtesy of Malaysiakini.com

Tweet

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

Malaysian officials on Wednesday released photos bolstering its claims that its campaign against armed intruders from Sulu has killed at 13 of the members of the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu.

"This is released to show that what is ongoing is real and not a figment (of anybody's imagination)," independent news site Malaysiakini.com quoted Malaysian Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein at Felda Sahabat Residence in Lahad Datu. "This is the reality on the ground."

Defense Minister Zahid Hamidi held up a picture that purported to show nine dead bodies piled on top of each other.

The Malaysian officials produced another picture of a Sulu fighter supposedly killed on Wednesday morning. "A final photograph showed a burial ground which did not depict any dead bodies," but in which three bodies were supposedly buried, Malaysiakini said.

Malaysia's military on Tuesday launched a fierce assault including jet fighters on up to 300 Filipino intruders after a deadly three-week standoff, but the militants' supporters said they had escaped and were alive and well.

Malaysia's national police chief had also raised doubts about the success of the air and ground attack, saying "mopping up" operations had yet to find any bodies and suggesting at least some of the militants might have slipped away.

The outcome of the operation remained unclear more than 11 hours after it began. Malaysian officials said their forces suffered no casualties but they gave no details on the fate of the Filipinos, whose allies based in Manila claimed they had survived and were still resisting.

Follow @interaksyon