“A soldier and a boy were injured in the operation,” Armed Forces chief Jen Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said during the Ops Daulat media briefing at Felda Sahabat 16 here yesterday.
He said the injured boy was found with the four inside the house after the shootout yesterday morning.
“The soldier was shot on the left side of his body during the gunfight and is undergoing treatment.
“The injured boy has been airlifted to Sandakan Hospital,'' he added.
Jen Zulkifeli said security forces also found food believed to have been stored in the house.
He said the four bodies have been sent to the hospital here for a post-mortem.
Meanwhile, Jen Zulkifeli said the remaining gunmen were mostly moving in groups of two or three.
Their modus operandi is to lure security forces into an area and provoke them into a gunfight before retreating into a house and continuing to fire.
“After that, one of them would escape to a nearby house and set it on fire to distract our attention so the one in the earlier house could attack from behind.
“After setting the house on fire, they would then escape into the nearby bush or swamp,” he added.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said no documents were found on the dead.
By Stephanie Lee / The Star
lahad datu Latest News Malaysia News News ops daulat sabah news sulu army