 THE MILITARY yesterday insisted that two operatives of the Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesia-based regional terror network believed linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, were killed in a military attack in Maguindanao last month. Military spokesperson Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said Army 604th Brigade commander Col. Gerry Jalandoni maintained that Indonesians Mohamad Ali Abdul Rahiman and Joko Pitono were among the 12 killed during the airstrike at the Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang town last Jan. 27.
| It's seven in the other article. When the numbers bounce like that, somebody's making them up... |
The military launched the attack after receiving reports that a meeting was taking place between members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, a renegade group of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and JI members. Rahiman, alias Muaya, is said to be a JI intelligence officer while Pitono, alias Dulmatin, was allegedly involved in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people in the posh Indonesian island-resort. A third Indonesian, identified only as Usman, managed to escape, Pascual revealed. "It has been a public knowledge in Datu Piang that the two Indonesians were killed," said Pascual, quoting Jalandoni.
| "Everybody knows it" isn't confirmation. |
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