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| Under probe: Detainees arriving at Semporna police headquarters after a police operation to nab intruders- The Star |
LAHAD DATU: A teenage boy died and a man was injured while
security forces were going on house-to-house checks to find the remnants of the
foreign militants who are believed to have broken up into smaller groups.
The two were found in a bush in Kampung Sungai Bilis
yesterday.
Two General Operations Force personnel were wounded in an
overnight gun battle around Kampung Tanjung Batu, said Inspector-General of
Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar.
He added that both the wounded GOF men, aged 25 from Miri,
were given onsite treatment by paramedics and were later flown by helicopter to
the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan.
One of them suffered a gunshot wound on his calf and the
other on his thigh.
“They are in stable condition and are the first two injuries
sustained by Malaysian security forces following the launch of Ops Daulat on
March 5,” he said at the Felda Residence Sahabat resort yesterday.
The two officers were hit during sporadic gun fights between
8pm on Saturday and 4am yesterday at Kampung Tanjung Batu.
The troops are moving towards the Sungai Bilis mangrove
area, where it is believed that the remaining gunmen had split up into pairs or
groups and are trying to flee the Red Zone.
Relating how the teenager was killed, Ismail said a security
unit stumbled upon three men and two women coming out of bushes near Sungai
Bilis at about 9.45am yesterday.
As they were being frisked, the security forces heard sounds
and spotted movements from the bushes and spontaneously fired shots at that
direction.
“Our men immediately fired at the bushes as there was a
possibility that they were about to be attacked by the gunmen. Upon checking,
they found the boy, believed to be between 12 and 15 years old, dead, and a man
in his 30s injured in the leg.
“A medical team was rushed to the area and they provided
treatment to the injured man,” he added.
When asked if the two were part of the intruders, Ismail
said they had no documents.
Ismail said the injured man was later detained.
