Wanted rebel leads Abu Sayyaf faction
Mundus 'has links to funding donors'
Manila: A Filipino militant wanted by Washington has become leader of a key faction of Abu Sayyaf, the Al Qaida-linked extremist group in the southern Philippines for which he has previously acquired foreign funding, the Philippine military says.
A military report obtained by journalists Sunday says the militant, Khair Mundus, has connections to funding donors from the Middle East and Malaysia. It also says he has an ideological bent and has begun giving religious training to Abu Sayyaf fighters.
The United States last year offered $500,000 (Dh1.84 million) for information leading to the capture or killing of Mundus, who was arrested by Philippine authorities in 2004 but escaped from a local jail in 2007. While in police custody, Mundus confessed to having arranged the transfer of Al Qaida funds to an Abu Sayyaf chief to finance bombings and other attacks, according to the US State Department.
Blacklisted group
The Abu Sayyaf, which means "Father of the Swordsman" in Arabic, was founded in 1991 on the island of Basilan in the Philippines' south. It has been blamed for bombings, kidnappings, beheadings and has reportedly given sanctuary to Indonesian terror suspects, including Dulmatin, a key suspect in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings who was killed by police in Indonesia last week.
Washington has blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf, which has nearly 400 fighters, as a terrorist organisation. US-backed offensives have killed or captured many of its commanders in recent years, leaving the group without an overall leader to unify its factions on Basilan, nearby Jolo island and the Zamboanga Peninsula.
Basilan lies about 880 kilometres south of the capital, Manila.
Documents recovered from an Abu Sayyaf camp captured by government troops and information from a Sri Lankan peace worker, who was kidnapped then freed by the militants last year, showed Mundus has emerged as the leader of the Basilan-based faction of the group, according to the military report.
Abu Sayyaf is trying to bring its militants back to a religious mooring, but its fighters will still resort to acts of banditry, like kidnappings, "to fuel large and high impact terrorist activities", it says.
Rear Admiral Alex Pama, who heads a counterterrorism force, said recent offensives have targeted Mundus. About a week ago, army, Marine and police forces captured a major Abu Sayyaf jungle camp near Basilan's mountainous Sumisip township, which was believed to have been used by Mundus' group for training and making bombs and booby traps.
At least six Abu Sayyaf fighters were killed and seven army soldiers were wounded in a series of clashes that ended with the fall of the camp on Hill 850, which could accommodate up to 80 militants. Several bombs and bomb-making components were found in the camp, Pama said.
"We won't give them time to settle in one place to train and make bombs," Pama said.
The military report says Mundus' deputy is the Basilan faction's previous chief, Puruji Indama, a young and brutal commander blamed for the beheadings of 10 Marines in 2007.
Seeking a super-state
- The Abu Sayyaf was formed in the 1990s by a charismatic preacher who returned to the Philippines from Afghanistan after the armies of the former Soviet Union were driven out of the country in 1989.
- The Abu Sayyaf wants an independent Islamic nation in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines, aligning itself with militants who espouse a similar vision of a pan-Islamic super-state in Southeast Asia.
- The founder and leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Abdurajak Abu Bakr Janjalani, was killed in December 1998 in a gunbattle with police and was replaced six months later by his younger brother, Khaddafy Janjalani. Khaddafy was killed in a clash with soldiers in late 2006.
- Yasser Igasan, a foreign-trained preacher, is believed to have replaced Khaddafy Janjalani, according to army intelligence. But, the loosely structured Abu Sayyaf also has a nine-member "shura" (council) that makes key decisions.
- Based on the Basilan and Jolo islands off the larger island of Mindanao, it began with small attacks, but soon graduated to larger-scale assaults as well as high-profile kidnappings of foreigners, including abducting tourists from a Malaysian resort island in 2000.
- A year later it kidnapped tourists and workers from a resort in the western Philippines. Most were released on payment of ransom, but three victims, including an American, were beheaded.
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