 PHILIPPINE authorities are investigating intelligence reports that the leader of the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group has been killed in an air raid, a military official said today. One of the military's "informants" had claimed Khadaffy Janjalani's "body was severed (cut in half)" last month during an air strike on a rebel hideout in marshlands near the town of Datu Piang on southern Mindanao island, said Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, army chief in the area.
| Please, Lord! Let it be true... |
| And we'd like to see both halves, just to be, ya know, on the safe side. |
| Then drive a stake through both halves before burning.. |
| A couple of vital organs in glass jars filled with formalin would be sufficient for me. |
He said the air raid took place on November 19, reportedly when Janjalani was meeting with members of regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, he said. "They were supposedly having a meeting with the JI (group) involved in the Bali bombing in 2002," Jalandoni said, referring to the attack in the Indonesian island resort that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. The Bali bombing was blamed on JI, the alleged Southeast Asian arm of al-Qaeda.
THE leader of the Abu Sayyaf group, Khaddafy Janjalani, may have been killed in a raid by military helicopters in Maguindanao last month, an Army commander said on Monday. Col. Jerry Jalandoni, a commander in Mindanao, said army informants had reported that Janjalani was among several suspected Muslim militants killed when helicopter gunships fired rockets on rebel hideouts in the Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang, Maguindanao, near the Linguasan Marsh in November. "I just want to emphasize that this is unconfirmed, because we do not have either half of his body," he told reporters. "We have informants who told us Janjalani is definitely dead."
"He is not merely dead,
But really most sincerely dead!" |
The military said Monday it is still verifying reports about the real status of Janjalani. Jalandoni emphasized that while the reports were unconfirmed they stated that Janjalani's body was severed during an air strike in the Butilan Marsh in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.
He said the air strike was conducted by the Air Force's MG520 attack helicopter after receiving reports about the presence of members of the Jemaah Islamiah and Janjalani in the area.
| Next budget year, guess what they're gonna buy more of? |
Jalandoni said Janjalani and the Jemaah Islamiah members who were involved in the Bali bombing in Indonesia in 2002 were supposed to hold a meeting in Datu Piang on November 19, when the air raid took place. But he did not disclose what the agenda of the meeting was.
| Prob'ly doesn't matter at this point, since they're dead... |
"What is definite is that Janjalani was in the area when we bombed it," Jalandoni said.
| "... and significant portions of him are reputed to remain!" |
He said the air raid took place on November 19, reportedly when Janjalani was meeting with members of the regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiah. He added that their informants told them that Janjalani's body was dragged by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and was put inside a couple of Ziplock plastic bag and then into a wooden cigar box before it was allegedly taken to Barangay Pamalian in Mamasapano town. "It [Jalandoni's body] was dragged by the MILF rebels because this is their area. It is near the headquarters of the 104th and 109th guerrilla base command," Jalandoni said. Jalandoni said the military is urging the MILF, where it has joint communiqués in the campaign against criminals and terrorist groups like the JIs, to help the military locate and recover Janjalani's body. The United States last week added Janjalani to a group of militants whose finances are blocked under US antiterrorist laws, calling him a "despicable terrorist, responsible for the kidnappings and beheadings of American civilians and other innocents."
The US State Department labeled Abu Sayyaf a foreign terrorist organization in 2002 for its role in bombings and kidnapÂÂpings in the Philippines and for its suspected links with al-Qaeda. Janjalani, the younger brother of the late Abu Sayyaf founder Abdurajak Janjalani, is suspected of masterminding the 2001 kidnapping of tourists and workers, including three Americans, from a Philippine beach resort. One of the Americans was beheaded shortly afterward, and another was killed more than a year later during a rescue operation by Philippine soldiers. Janjalani claimed responsibility for planting a bomb that sank a ferry near Manila in February, killing more than 100 people. The government played down the claim at first, but said in October that the Abu Sayyaf carried out the attack.
Jalandoni said soldiers had been sent to scour the marshy area near Datu Piang town in Central Mindanao to find more proof that Janjalani had been killed. An Army official said the military had been able to pinpoint Janjalani's location using signal and electronic intelligence provided by US soldiers based in Mindanao. The Philippines and the United States have been conducting joint intelligence exercises in the south to hunt down Abu Sayyaf and Indonesian militants hiding in Central Mindanao. Lt. Gen. Efren Abu, the Armed Forces' chief of staff, said two weeks ago that the Abu Sayyaf and members of a JI cell were taking advantage of government peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to hide in the rebel group's known strongholds. |