Philippine military kills three top militants in airstrike

Philippine military kills three top militants in airstrike

2012-02-03 07:02:35 GMT+7 (ICT)

MANILA (BNO NEWS) -- At least 15 suspected militants, including three senior leaders, were killed on Thursday in an air raid in the southern Philippines, the military said.

The dawn strike targeted a militant hideout in Parang town in Sulu province in the Mindanao region, following civilian tips that there were Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants in the area. The attack lasted only for a few seconds before ground troops stormed the militant camp, killing 15 militants, the Inquirer Mindanao reported.

Military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos said Abu Sayyaf commander Umbra Jumdail and JI leaders Zulkifli bin Hir and Abdullah Ali were the senior leaders killed in the airstrikes. Zulkifli is a Malaysian leader of JI, the militant organization blamed for some of Southeast Asia's deadliest terrorist attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people.

Zulkifli was allegedly the over-all leader of the JI in the Philippines. At the time of his death, the U.S. government was offering a cash reward of $5 million for Zulkifli's capture.

Abdullah Ali, who goes by many aliases, is a Singaporean member of JI who fled to the Philippines shortly after the Bali bombings. The U.S. also offered a reward for his arrest, but only for $50,000.

Jumdail was the founder and one of the most senior figures of the Abu Sayyaf group, which was established in Mindanao in the 1990s with seed money from al-Qaeda. He had arrest warrants for 21 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, according to the Inquirer Mindanao.


Burgos said that no civilians were hurt in the operation, adding that this was a "thorough and deliberate" attack done after "months of intelligence gathering." He said there were reports that 30 terrorists, including six foreign JI members, arrived in Sulu last December.


"We want to assure the people of Sulu that the operation conducted was aimed against known members of the terrorist groups - Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah -- who intend to expand their presence in Mindanao," Burgos added.

The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf is a band of self-styled Islamists who have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines and high-profile kidnappings involving foreign hostages.

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