Malaysia beefs up security as Borneo toll rises

Source: AFP

Jamalul Kiram III, a self-proclaimed sultan, seen praying in Manila, on
March 3, 2013. Followers of the 74-year-old Islamic leader say
gunmen are ready to die to defend his claim to Sabah, which
was once controlled by the now-defunct sultanate.

Malaysia vowed to beef up security Monday in an eastern state where at least 26 people have been reported killed after a bizarre invasion by Philippine followers of a self-styled sultan.

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is under pressure over Malaysia's worst security crisis in years, has authorised a "doubling" of police and armed forces deployed in the tense state of Sabah on Borneo island.

"An additional two army battalions have been dispatched to Sabah," Najib, who has vowed to root out the intruders, was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.

Did the police walk into a trap in Semporna?

Inspector General of Police Ismail Omar says
his men may have been lured in by decoys
and fired upon as they entered the water village.

Source

TAWAU: Police searching for a group of gunmen in Kampung Sri Jaya in the Simunul area in Semporna may have walked into a trap that was set for them.

According to sources, the gunmen appeared ready for the police raid and opened fire as the police were on the narrow single-plank walkways linking the various houses on stilts.

Six policemen, including an officer, and six unidentified gunmen were killed during the firefight that occurred around 7pm yesterday.

Police have encircled the village, one of many that are perched on stilts over the sea, to track down remaining gunmen.

Defiant Sulu Sultan mocks calls to surrender

Sultan Jamalul Kiram III says his soldiers will not bow to either
Malaysia or to Philippines President Benigno Aquino.

KOTA KINABALU: The only man with the power to stop more bloodshed in a remote village in Lahad Datu, Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III, has mocked the idea of surrender.

For him and his armed followers, who are occupying a seaside village called Kg Tanduo, about 160km from Lahad Datu town, averting a looming bloody showdown is dependent on Malaysia acknowledging Sabah as part of the Sulu sultanate and its handover to the Philippines.

It is unlikely that he will get his wish. If anything, it is a death warrant for the remaining 224 men dug in at Kg Tanduo and surrounded by heavily armed Malaysian security forces.

Villagers beat gunman to death

A reporter on his way to an assignment in Kampung
Nihak Nihak about 30 kilometres from Semporna
saw the dead body of an armed man.

SEMPORNA: A man armed with a M16 rifle, believed to have been involved in an ambush which claimed the lives of five policemen at Kampung Sri Jaya, Siminul, Semporna last night, was beaten to death by a group of Kampung Senallang Lama villagers here.

The man has yet to be identified.

In the 7 am incident this morning, a big-sized man in his 50s, dressed in black and armed with a M16 rifle climbed down a hill and let off a few shots in the direction of the village.

Villager Abdul Hani Samaullah, 44, told Bernama that the man pierced the early morning calm by shouting,” I’m the one who shot the police last night.”

5 cops. 2 gunmen killed in Semporna ambush

LAHAD DATU, March 3 (Bernama) -- Five policemen, one of them an officer, were killed in an ambush by a group of armed men, two of whom were also killed, in Kampung Sri Jaya, Simunul, Semporna, Sabah, last night.

Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the incident occurred at 8 pm at the water village.

The policemen, from the Semporna District Police Headquarters, had been ordered to carry out an investigation at the village following a tip-off that there was a group of armed men there, he told a news conference here today.