A Filipino on the US’ list of most-wanted “terrorists” has been killed in a firefight in the southern Philippines, Muslim rebel leaders and the Philippine military said yesterday.
Abdul Basit Usman was killed in a remote mountainous area while being escorted by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar said.
“We can confirm that Usman is dead and his body was buried in accordance with Muslim tradition,” Jaafar said, without adding who killed him.
The rebel group is seeking to finalize an accord with the government— signed last year — to end four decades of fighting in which about 120,000 people have died.
Security forces had been hunting Usman since he escaped from a January police raid that killed Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, an alleged bomb maker who was the subject of a US$5 million US government bounty.
Usman, accused of repeated bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, was the subject of a US$1 million US bounty.
The January raid, conducted in MILF territory, also led to the deaths of 44 police commandos as rebels fought back, setting back efforts to finalize the peace deal.
The MILF has since then been under intense political pressure to show it is a reliable peace partner.
Jaafar said Usman was killed as MILF rebels were escorting him to the group’s leaders to surrender, adding that he probably did not know he was being taken back to separatist leaders.
“There was a firefight along the way. Usman could have sensed that he was being double-crossed,” Jaafar said.
However he refused to give any more details as to who killed Usman, saying only that the circumstances of the firefight were under investigation.
Philippine Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Gregorio Catapang said Usman had been killed, but that it remained unclear as to who killed him.
“Basit Usman is dead, as to the circumstances of what happened during that encounter, it’s up to [the investigation],” Catapang told reporters.
The military said five of Usman’s followers had also died in the battle, and that some of his own men might have double-crossed him.
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