Posted on 12/16/2007 7:04:01 PM PST by jdm
A senior Islamic militant, wanted by the US government, has been killed in a clash with the Philippine military in the nation's restive south, an official said Sunday.
Abdul Mubin Sakandal, a leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, was killed during a joint navy and marine operation on the remote island of Tawi-Tawi, a military official said.
Sakandal, also known as Abdurajak Mobin, had allegedly helped carry out a string of high-profile kidnappings of foreigners from resort islands in neighboring Malaysia and from the Philippine isle of Palawan.
"Our naval elements neutralized Mobin ... during a dragnet operation at 7.30 pm on Saturday," said regional navy chief Rear Admiral Emilio Marayag.
Posted on the US government's list of wanted "terrorists", Sakandal was a brother in law and a lieutenant of overall Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani, who was himself killed last year by marines.
Washington had earlier offered up to 20,000 dollars for Sakandal's arrest, while the Philippine government had placed a separate two million peso (48,780 dollars) bounty on his head.
Founded in the early 1990s by Afghan-trained Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, the Abu Sayyaf (Bearer of the Sword) initially fought for an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines, and had once received funding from Osama bin Laden's network, experts say.
After Janjalani was killed in 1998, the group degenerated into a criminal gang, specializing in kidnap for ransom and bombing attacks.
In 2000 and 2001, they seized dozens of foreign hostages. Although all of the European hostages were later freed on ransom, two kidnapped Americans were killed -- with one of them beheaded.
The Abu Sayyaf also in 2004 firebombed a passenger ferry in Manila Bay, killing more than 100 people in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack.
Last week, 14 Abu Sayyaf members were sentenced to life imprisonment for the deaths of the American hostages.
FYI
Abu the Dead Terrorist....
My wife is from Mindanao, and one or both of us was planning to back there next month, so this is certainly good news.
Next!
It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas........
ping
It’s beginning to look as though belonging to a Muslim extremist group is not a prudent career-development choice.
LOL
Yes excellant news. The war on terror is progressing around the world. No thanks to the dimocRATS.
...and he didn’t even get the chance to suicide himself
Yep, another dead terrorist.
Thank you for the ping, Calpernia.
That has a nice ring to it, poetic like.
There once was a man named Mobin
who said he was out when in
The Marines came alooking
Mobin started booking
and now Mobin is done in.
Thanks for the ping.
It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas - for the Christian Filippino people who have suffered at the hands of these Moslem extremists.
This character missed El Eid or whatever. Now he is with 72 syphilitic virgins who look like Helen Thomas.
Thanks for the ping.
Good, this is definite progress.
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