Posted on 08/01/2002 11:58:54 AM PDT by HAL9000
Rumors persist that Abu Sayyaf leader, believed killed in clash at sea, still alive
MANILA, Philippines, Aug 01, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A top Philippine general says he'll bet a month's salary that a notorious Muslim guerrilla leader died in a bloody sea skirmish six weeks ago. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says she's convinced, too.
Even so, rumors persist that Sabaya - blamed for leading a yearlong kidnapping spree that left two Americans and 18 Filipinos dead - survived.
Some say he is still with the Abu Sayyaf, a criminal Islamic gang linked to the al-Qaida terror network and targeted by a Philippine army offensive backed by U.S. counterterrorism trainers and equipment.
In the darkness before dawn on June 21, Philippine special forces in speedboats, shepherded by American military helicopters, intercepted a boat carrying seven guerrillas, including Sabaya.
A gun battle broke out and troops said Sabaya, already shot at least once, jumped overboard and began swimming toward shore a kilometer (half a mile) away. One soldier said he then shot the rebel leader in the back and watched him sink below the waves.
Search operations by air and sea, including fishermen eager to cash in on a big government reward, produced no trace of Sabaya or two other guerrillas also reportedly killed.
Since then, there have been periodic claims, mostly by Abu Sayyaf supporters, that Sabaya is either on the southern island of Basilan or nearby Jolo, recuperating from gunshot wounds.
Another rumor, reported on radio, claimed Sabaya was captured and spirited away to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where Washington is holding captives from Afghanistan.
Ernesto Maceda, a former senator and ambassador to the United States, recently fueled the fire by claiming on his radio program that unspecified U.S. contacts had confirmed that Sabaya is alive.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday she believed the military's account of Sabaya's death, backed by interrogations of the four Abu Sayyaf members who survived the clash.
But she was not able to scotch the rumors completely, saying she saw only heat images of figures in U.S. surveillance videotapes of the fighting.
"The face doesn't register," Arroyo said, adding that she could not show the footage publicly because it is U.S. property. "That it was Sabaya is from the eyewitnesses - both our troops and then the surviving Abu Sayyaf."
She also said Americans personnel in helicopters at the scene about 810 kilometers (500 miles) south of Manila "saw it from above."
Philippine Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio said no body was found because internal gases, that would normally force a corpse to the surface, would have escaped through bullet wounds.
"His body is already dirt under the sea," said Teodosio, co-director of a just completed six-month U.S. counterterrorism training exercise to help Philippine troops wipe out the Abu Sayyaf. Offering to bet a month's salary, he challenged Maceda on Thursday "to produce Sabaya."
It would be in the interests of the Abu Sayyaf - decimated over the last year by deaths, arrests and surrenders - to spread rumors of Sabaya's survival and embellish its reputation and attract new recruits.
One of the strongest arguments against the rumors is the Abu Sayyaf's silence since the clash.
Always wearing his trademark sunglasses, Sabaya, 39, craved the spotlight and loved taunting his pursuers by regularly calling news media with threats and demands.
He gained infamy with chilling statements, such as his report that American Guillermo Sobero had been beheaded to mark Arroyo's birthday last year.
Sabaya's best prospect for survival would be that he wasn't on the boat in the first place. That would mean a number of people lied to the military, including the arrested Abu Sayyaf members, military spies and the village leader who supposedly kept Sabaya's group in his house on the eve of the clash.
Sabaya headed the Abu Sayyaf faction, blamed for 102 kidnappings which ended in a bloody June 7 attempt to rescue its last three hostages.
American missionary Gracia Burnham was freed, but her husband Martin and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap were killed.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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