Manila: A key Abu Sayyaf commander killed in a US-backed airstrike in the southern Philippines was planning terror attacks, including new kidnappings of foreigners and bombings, when he was slain, security officials said yesterday.
The pre-dawn military bombing offensive on Thursday killed long-time Abu Sayyaf commander Umbra Jumdail and several other militants while they slept in huts and hammocks in a jungle hideout on southern Jolo island, officials said.
Military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos said Jumdail's death was a major blow to his Al Qaida-linked group because he harboured several south-east Asian terrorist figures, who have provided funds and bomb-making training. He had a larger civilian following compared with more brutal Abu Sayyaf commanders which helped him evade military offensives.
"He had the charisma and was the real link used by foreign militants," Burgos said. "He was a big loss."
Jumdail's group was planning terrorist attacks when he was killed, Burgos said, adding intelligence indicated that six Malaysian militants travelled to Sulu in December and joined his group for unspecified reasons.
Future plots
Two security officials said future plots by Jumdail's group included kidnapping foreigners and bombings.
A few villagers, who were secretly working for the military, travelled to Jumdail's hideout and pretended to seek medical treatment to be able to bring in and leave some kind of sensor, which was later used by the bomber planes to zero in on the Abu Sayyaf lair, one of the officials said.
Jumdail, who was also known as Dr Abu Pula, had knowledge of medicine and has drawn support from poor villagers and loyalty of his men partly by treating ordinary illnesses and performing surgeries on wounded combatants, the official said.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Philippine security officials have given different accounts on whether top south-east Asian terror suspect Zulkifli Bin Hir from Malaysia and Singaporean militant Abdullah Ali were also slain in the intelligence-driven offensive. Not a single body was retrieved by police in the bombed hilly jungle lair near Lanao Dakulah village, fuelling different versions of who was killed.
Regional military commander Major General Noel Coballes said on Thursday that Bin Hir, who used the guerrilla name Marwan, and Ali, also known as Muawiyah, were killed along with Jumdail and 12 other gunmen when their camp was bombarded by two OV10 planes at 3am.
