Philippine troops killed a bomb-making expert from a Southeast Asian terror network on Sunday, but there was much scepticism yesterday that he may have been executed ahead of a visit by US President George W. Bush.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the killing of fugitive Indonesian militant Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi on Sunday after what officials said was a shoot-out in the Mindanao region showed that "terrorists" would never succeed here.
Officials said al-Ghozi, a senior leader of the Jemaah Islamiah group and one of the most wanted men in Asia since escaping from a Manila prison in July, was killed after opening fire on police and troops who stopped the van he was in.
PHOTO: AFP
Television showed grisly pictures of a body lying in a morgue dressed only in underwear and surrounded by security officials.
But police officers and residents in the southern town where the killing took place said there was no sign of a firefight, fuelling rumors that al-Ghozi had already been captured and then killed at the best time to boost Manila's anti-terror image.
"Al-Ghozi's killing reads like an awfully crafted script. The timing is just too perfect," said Teodoro Casino, secretary-general of the left-leaning Bayan activist group.
PHOTO: AFP
"We suspect al-Ghozi was captured much, much earlier to be killed just at the right moment, which was yesterday," he said.
Bush flies to Manila for an eight-hour visit on Saturday.
"The death of al-Ghozi signals that terrorists will never get far in the Philippines," Arroyo said in a statement before flying to Mindanao to personally check on the situation.
"We are determined to end this transnational threat decisively," she said.
Al-Ghozi was jailed last year for 17 years for possessing explosives and falsifying documents. He was also accused of masterminding bombings that killed 22 people in Manila in December 2000.
He slipped out of the heavily secured police intelligence building on July 14 with two suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, after apparently being allowed to walk out of his cell.
His escape was a severe embarrassment for the government. The army killed one of the escaped rebels soon after the break-out and recaptured the other last week.
Philippine police chief Hermogenes Ebdane, who flew to Mindanao yesterday, denied allegations that al-Ghozi's killing had been staged.
Ebdane said two men had opened fire on police who stopped their car near the town of Pigcawayan in North Cotabato af-ter receiving a tip-off on al-Ghozi's planned route.
"It was just unfortunate that when the troops flagged down the vehicle, instead of stopping, they fired at our troops and there was a brief shootout," Ebdane said.
He said al-Ghozi fired two shots, and that police later recovered a .45-caliber pistol from him.
The other man traveling with al-Ghozi was able to escape in the darkness and heavy rain, he said.
Ebdane said al-Ghozi had been pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital with gunshot wounds to his chest, both arms and one side of his body.
"Only a few people could have witnessed the armed encounter because it was raining hard at that time," Ebdane said.
He said fingerprints had confirmed the body was al-Ghozi's and that it would likely be turned over to Indonesian officials without an autopsy being conducted, in line with Muslim custom.
However, the police chief of Pigkawayan town, where Ebdane said al-Ghozi was gunned down, denied there was any gunfire in the area at the time, or that al-Ghozi was fatally shot there.
"We were informed by residents about a shooting incident in Pigca-wayan town but when we arrived there, we did not see indications of any gun battle," Inspector Raulito Suyom said.
"Definitely there was no encounter. There was no exchange of fire," Suyom said by telephone.
He said no police or military unit had coordinated with him. Asked to explain the discrepancy, Ebdane said there had been "no time" to coordinate with local police, and that he apologized to the regional governor for not informing him and his men on the operation.
Ebdane also denied that the timing of al-Ghozi's killing had anything to do with Bush's visit.
"We don't consider any connection between the slaying of al-Ghozi and Bush. This is a routine operation," Ebdane said.
Rumors have swirled in recent weeks that a Muslim rebel group had captured al-Ghozi and was negotiating his handover to the government.
The government had announced a reward of 10 million pesos (US$183,000) for al-Ghozi, dead or alive.
Ebdane said a group of civilians would receive the reward.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS