Lahat Datu: Police and Army in full control? Betul ka ni?

"Steadyaku47 comment: 

It is now 6.59 a.m. here and to find out the latest on Lahad Datu I went first to 7 News Australia and then to Malaysian Media reports of the situation - if you see below you will understand why I do so. I learn more about the situation in Lahat Datu from foreign news than from our Malaysian Main stream media! 
The first one from NST informs us that 

 "Police and army 'in full control of situation."

The Defense Minister is even quoted as saying: 

“What we want to tell Malaysians is that the armed forces’ operation to defend the nation’s sovereignty has been fruitful.”


What follows is the 7 News Australian report that tells us                                             

 "DOUBTS EMERGE OVER MALAYSIAN ASSAULT ON INVADERS"

Which one do you believe? Only time will tell......?


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MALAYSIAN MAIN STREAM MEDIA REPORTS ON LAHAT DATU:

Security forces preparing to launch the attack.

UPDATE ON LAHAD DATU: Police and army 'in full control of situation'






OPERATIONS STRENGTHENED: 10 intruders give up while 3 more arrested

LAHAD DATU: SECURITY forces are in full control of areas in the east coast of Sabah which had come under threat from the armed Sulu intruders over the past several days.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said the collaboration between police and the army had strengthened their operations to maintain peace in those areas.

Ismail also made it clear that the situation did not warrant a military handover and that there was no curfew imposed.

He said while the cordoned-off area in Kampung Tandou, where Sulu intruders first landed on Feb 12, remained impenetrable, security personnel had also been dispatched to secure other surrounding villages.

Ismail said besides Kampung Tandou, Kunak was another area where intruders were believed to still hiding.

"The remaining districts in Sabah are safe and there is no need to fear. We are in control."

The situation in Kampung Sri Jaya in Simunul, Semporna, the scene of a shoot-out on Saturday, has been now been categorised as "safe".

Paying tribute to his men, including the eight killed by the intruders from southern Philippines, Ismail said they had taken down 19 foreign gunmen.

Ten intruders had surrendered to security forces while three were arrested.

He said despite the setbacks they had faced, his men remained high-spirited.

"They are not discouraged by the deaths of their comrades. They are ready for any eventuality," he said during the Ops Sulu media briefing in Felda Residence Sahabat 16.

On reports that the policemen in Simunul were tortured and beheaded, Ismail said a full report would be given once investigations were completed.

On allegations that the security forces were sabotaged from within by two of their officers who were caught feeding the enemy with information, Ismail said: "The force is going through a trying time with certain parties trying to discredit and bring it down, but my men remain committed to protecting the country."

Meanwhile, the home and defence ministers arrived yesterday.

After a two-hour briefing at the marine base here, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi headed for the airport where they boarded a helicopter to the General Operations Force base in Felda Sahabat 17, where the first two policemen were killed in a gun battle with the intruders on Friday.

Armoured infantry fighting vehicles going to Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu, to assist in the hunt for foreign intruders yesterday.

This is a report from 7 News Australian:

DOUBTS EMERGE OVER MALAYSIAN ASSAULT ON INVADERS

AFPUpdated March 6, 2013, 1:58 am

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FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia (AFP) - Malaysia's military 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.

Malaysian premier Najib Razak said as the raid was under way that he had no choice but to unleash the military to end Malaysia's biggest security crisis in years after the interlopers refused to surrender and 27 people were killed.

A day after the Philippines called for restraint, Malaysia launched a dawn assault on the estimated 100-300 gunmen on Borneo island, who invaded to claim Malaysian territory on behalf of a former Philippine sultanate.

Fighter jets bombed the standoff village of Tanduo in Sabah state on the northern tip of Borneo island, followed by a ground assault by troops. The area is set amid vast oil-palm plantations.

"The longer this invasion lasts, it is clear to the authorities that the invaders do not intend to leave Sabah," Najib said in a statement.

But Abraham Idjirani, spokesman for the sultan Jamalul Kiram III, told AFP the attack had occurred "away from where" their men were, saying he spoke with the leader of the armed group about eight hours after the assault was launched.

Malaysian federal police chief Ismail Omar later told reporters in a press conference hours after the initial attack that soldiers combing across a wide area of hilly plantation country were yet to find any dead militants.

He added Malaysian forces had suffered no casualties.

If the invaders had indeed escaped a tight police and military cordon, it would likely fuel perceptions of incompetence by security forces in the affair, and sow fears that armed and dangerous gunmen were loose.

The crisis comes as Malaysia's 56-year-old ruling coalition is bracing for what are widely expected to be the country's closest-ever election against a formidable opposition, which has criticised handling of the incursion.

Jamalul Kiram III, 74, a self-proclaimed sultan and leader of the insurgents said earlier Tuesday in Manila that the fighters, which had included his younger brother "will fight to the last man".

Muslim-majority Malaysia has been shocked by the spectacularly bold attack by the Islamists, who claim to be asserting Jamalul's ancestral control of Sabah as heir to the now defunct Sulu sultanate.

The invaders had been holed up in Tanduo village since landing by boat last month, highlighting lax Malaysian security in the region and the continuing threat from southern Philippine Islamists.

"We've done everything we could to prevent this, but in the end, Kiram's people chose this path," a spokesman for Philippine President Benigno Aquino said.

Violence first erupted in Tanduo on Friday with a shootout that left 12 of the gunmen and two police officers dead. Another gunbattle Saturday in the town of Semporna, hours away by road, killed six police and six gunmen.

Police had already said at the weekend they were hunting for a group of "foreign" gunmen in yet another town, but have provided no further updates.

Meanwhile, followers of Kiram, have repeatedly warned that yet more militants were poised to land in Sabah.

Members of a major Philippine Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front who had agreed to disarm in the 1990s and renounce its claim over Sabah as part of a peace pact, are also involved in deadly battles in Malaysia, the group's leader said.

The Philippines also said that its navy had stopped 70 more people from getting across the sea border to help the militants.

The mayhem triggered panic in Semporna, where many residents were witnessed by an AFP reporter fleeing the town on Monday, fearing more violence.

The Sulu sultanate's power faded about a century ago but its heirs continue to insist on ownership of resource-rich Sabah and still receive nominal Malaysian payments under a lease deal originally struck by Western colonial powers.