The United States handed over $10 million in bounties to four Muslim men in the southern Philippines on Thursday for their role in the killing of two leaders of the countryÂ’s deadliest Islamic militant group. US ambassador Kristie Kenney handed over briefcases containing crisp 1,000-peso bills to the men on the southern island of Jolo, the bastion of the Abu Sayyaf militants. They wore black hoods during the ceremony to conceal their identities. Two of the men were former Abu Sayyaf rebels who turned themselves in and led Philippine soldiers to the grave of their leader. They shared $5 million. Two Muslim farmers who tipped off army commandos about another militant leader who was then killed in a gunbattle in January shared another $5 million bounty. |