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8 Killed In New Bombing In Southern Philippines Monday, September 01, 2008 04:11:12 PM DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 1, 2008) – A homemade bomb explosion Monday ripped through a commuter bus, killing at least 8 people in the southern Philippines, where security forces are battling Moro rebels, officials said. Officials said the bombing targeted the bus owned by Metro Shuttle in Digos City in Davao del Sur province. At least seven people were seriously wounded in the attack. The bombing occurred at a bus depot shortly before 3 p.m., according to Army Col. Roland Bautista, of the...

Key bombing suspect deported from Bahrain By ARIS R. ILAGAN & YUL MALICSE One of the alleged masterminds of a ferry bombing that killed 116 people four years ago and the Makati Valentines Day bombing in 2005 was captured in Bahrain and deported to the Philippines, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, chairman of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), said yesterday.

(Updated 8:30 a.m.) A body believed to be that of Indonesian terrorist leader Dulmatin, wanted for the October 2002 Bali bombings, was recovered Monday afternoon by a joint military team in Tawi-Tawi province. Intelligence reports said the body was found 1:30 p.m. at the vicinity of Sitio Salisit in Balimbing village, Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi. "(The) said corpse was jointly identified by informants with notable wounds in the head, chest and right foot to include clothing in physical characteristics matched with previous revelations," the report said. The body was exhumed for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing for confirmation. Reached for...

An Italian priest, Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped at gunpoint in the southern Philippines last month, has been freed. The news was announced by the Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, and coincides with the 87th birthday of Father Bossi's mother. Fourteen government soldiers were killed last week as they searched for the priest. The Philippine army blamed their deaths on Islamists linked to al-Qaeda. Father Bossi, who plans to meet with his parishioners before heading back to Italy to see his family, said his captors treated him "with respect." "I never had the sensation that they wanted to kill...

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - Philippine troops have arrested a senior Islamic militant over the kidnap and killing of a group of tourists, including two Americans, in 2001, a military statement said Friday. Soldiers backed by police raided a hideout of the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group in southern Margosatubig island on Thursday, the statement said. Troops arrested Abu Sayyaf commander Tuatin Anahaly and seized a cache of weapons including a pistol that he was carrying, near the city of Zamboanga. Anahaly has been on the run since a two-million-peso (48,700-dollar) bounty was placed on this head over his role in...

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...

MANILA - A controversial Muslim congressman was the target of a powerful bomb blast outside the Philippine House of Representatives that killed him and two others, police said this morning. Wahab Akbar, one of the most influential figures in the Philippines' restive south, died in hospital last night as doctors fought to save his life. A driver and a congressional aide were also killed. Nine other people were injured in the blast, which hit the south lobby of the sprawling complex in the capital Manila just minutes after most congressmen had left for the evening. Manila police Chief Geary Barias...

This week the Pentagon released official figures on how dramatically the security situation has improved in Iraq. Terrorist attacks, secular violence, road-side bombings, Iraqi civilian deaths and U.S. casualties are all down. The announcement received scant notice from the so-called mainstream media. About the only news from the global war on radical Islamic terror to receive less attention this week was the erroneously headlined story on the Associated Press wire: “Army Captain from Fort Lewis, WA, Drowns in the Philippines.” The item immediately captured my attention for two reasons. First, the struggle against Islamic terror in the Philippines is the...

ISABELA, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine special forces troops on Friday killed 11 members of the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim guerrilla group holding an American couple hostage on a southern island, officials said. Troops from the Light Reaction Company, a crack special forces team trained by the U.S. military, tracked down a band of Abu Sayyaf men on the outskirts of Isabela town and killed 11 of them in a 15-minute gunfight, Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu told reporters. The bodies of two of the rebels were found while the retreating guerrillas took away the rest of the dead, said Cimatu, the ...

TAGBILARAN CITY—Police on Wednesday arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf bomber on a ferry in Cebu on his way to Metro Manila with “enough explosives to kill hundreds of people,” an official said yesterday. Police arrested the man a day before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrived in Bohol Thursday for the first Local Peace and Security Assembly. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales described him as a Muslim in his early 20s. “I cannot divulge the name yet because the investigation is still ongoing,” Gonzales said. “We suspect that he is a member of the Abu Sayyaf and he was on his...

New video shows jihadists in Philipines training A video showing jihadists in what appears to be the Philipines has been advertised heavily on the Arabic language message boards. The video, which claims to have been produced by the Moro International Center, shows jihadists in the Philipines making statements and training. A full translation is in progress. A copy of the video can be downloaded from http://www.lauramansfield.com/philipine3.rm Translation: The Filipino Lions are Coming Last week's video from the jihidist groups in the Philipines entitled "The Filipino Lions Are Coming" shows old speeches by leaders of the Abu-Sayyaf Group, Abdurajik Janjalani, aka...

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Thursday confirmed reports that a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operative wanted for the 2002 deadly bombing in Bali, Indonesia was injured in an encounter with Army troops last August 9 in Sulu province. Esperon said the military has received reliable information confirming that Indonesian terror suspect Dulmatin sustained injuries after fighting alongside Abu Sayyaf members against government troops in Maimbung town. Aside from Dulmatin, the military also believes that Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Doc Abu was wounded while his son was killed in the encounter. Dulmatin is a 32-year-old Indonesian electronics expert suspected...

Thousands of people have fled their homes on the southern Philippine island of Jolo as troops pursue Muslim militants blamed for killing more than 20 soldiers, officials said on Saturday. Jolo brigade commander Colonel Anthony Supnet said his troops would continue to hunt the gunmen, even though they had broken up into smaller groups and scattered into the hinterlands of Jolo. Supnet said the attackers were members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a group that had signed a peace accord with the government in 1996, and the Abu Sayyaf, an extremist group not covered by the accord. He...

Thousands of civilians have fled their homes in the southern Philippine island of Jolo after deadly clashes between troops and militants, officials say. More than 50 people were killed on Thursday, almost half of them soldiers. Reinforcements have begun to arrive in Jolo, as the military steps up its campaign against Islamist rebels. Troops backed by US military trainers have been fighting militants affiliated to various groups, hiding in the island's mountainous terrain. Thursday's fighting began when a troop convoy was ambushed near the town of Maimburg, leaving 10 soldiers dead. Fifteen more soldiers were killed and 17 were wounded...

'Fifty dead' in Philippines clash More than 50 people have been killed in clashes between troops and Islamist militants in the southern Philippines, military officials say. The fighting, on Jolo island, began on Thursday when militants ambushed a military convoy, killing 10 soldiers. Fifteen more soldiers died in later gun battles, and at least 27 militants were killed, the military said. It blamed Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf and rogue elements in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Thousands of Philippine troops, backed by US military trainers, are based in Jolo, some 950km (600 miles) south of the capital, Manila....

HISTORY - Time line [some] Important dates in radical ISLAM VS WORLD 1263 - 1328 The 'Godfather of Islamic Fundamentalism' Who is the True Godfather of Islamic Fundamentalism? His name is Ibn Taymiyyah, or Taq ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah, and he lived from 1263 to 1328. His name by birth was Ahmad ibn Abdul-Halim ibn Abdas-Salaam. This individual could be considered as the real godfather of fundamentalism. Maududi borrowed extensively from Taymiyyah's writings. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php? id=1194248__________________1347 [The Bahmani sultans & genocide on Indians]The Muslim conquests, down to the 16th century, were for the Hindus a pure struggle of life and death....

Zamboanga City, 19 July (AKI) - In the latest in a series of macabre religious killings in the Philippines, a Muslim missionary has been killed on the island of Basilan, in the southern province of Mindanao. According to The Mindanao Examiner, the missionary, whose name has not been released, was believed to have been killed because he gave information to the authorities about the Islamic terrorist organisation, Abu Sayyaf. Officials said the preacher's mutilated body was found on Tuesday inside a sack in the village of Balagtasan. “We condemn the killing and authorities are now hunting the culprits behind the...

LAMITAN CITY [Philippines]-- They were returning to base in heavy rains after a fruitless search for kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi when their trucks stalled in the mud. Then the firing began. In a 10-hour gun battle that turned into a carnage, 14 Marines were killed -- 10 of them beheaded -- and nine others wounded in one of the most shocking military debacles in years in the country’s southern islands. “They were surprised when bullets rained on them,” Brig. Gen. Ramiro Alivio told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, recounting Tuesday’s daylong clash between 50 badly outnumbered Marines and some 400...

Islamic militants in the southern Philippines have killed 14 marines, beheading 10 of them, a military spokesman has said. Nine other marines were wounded and at least four rebels were killed during the incident on Basilan island. The clash took place as the marines were searching for an Italian priest. The priest was seized in June by kidnappers believed to be from either Abu Sayyaf or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Both groups are seeking an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Ceasefire violation? The priest, named as Giancarlo Bossi, was seized by armed men near the coastal village...

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) -- The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest and most deadly Muslim militant group in the Philippines, has chosen a Syria-trained Islamic scholar as its new leader, a senior general said on Wednesday. Lieutenant-General Romeo Tolentino said the new militant leader, Yasser Igasan, was chosen three weeks ago after a straw poll by Abu Sayyaf field commanders at a rebel base on the southern island of Jolo. "We believed that Igasan has taken over the leadership due to his religious background," Tolentino told reporters after meeting U.S. military officials at the army's main base in Manila. "He's not new...

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," June 8, 2007,... SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: We go live now to the Philippines, where our own FOX News Channel's Colonel Oliver North is covering a major counter terror operation with a joint Philippine strike force and U.S. Special Op advisors on the hunt for the Islamic terror group .Colonel, what's happening?OLIVER NORTH, HOST, "WAR STORIES": Sean, today we went with U.S. Special Operations troops and Philippine troops to the scene of two recent battles with and rogue Moro National Liberation Front terrorists.For years, Islamic radicals have used this dense, triple canopy...

U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie A. Kenney distributed rewards to four Filipino citizens in a public ceremony on the island of Jolo today. A group of Filipino citizens, represented by the four present at the ceremony, will share the total reward of $10 million. This payment is the second largest of its kind by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, the U.S. Department of State's counterterrorism rewards program. Two notorious high-ranking leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Group, Khadaffy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman, were killed as a result of information provided by Filipino sources. Both terrorists...

MANILA, Philippines - The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines handed over a $10 million reward Thursday to four Filipino informants whose tip led to the killing of the country's two top terror suspects, the U.S. Embassy said. It was the largest reward given so far by Washington in a campaign to wipe out al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines, where the U.S. military has been training and advising Filipino troops. The U.S. promised a reward of up to $5 million each for Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, who was slain in a September clash on southern Jolo island, and his...

(UPDATE 4) ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -- Soldiers have taken into custody the four children of Indonesian bomb suspect Dulmatin during a raid in Simunul Island off Tawi-Tawi on Thursday evening, authorities said. Commodore Emilio Marayag, commander of Naval Forces South, said the children, aged 2,5,7 and 9, were found inside a house in Bacung village that was raided by a composite team of troops from the Second Marine Battalion, the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) 9, and the police Special Action Force (SAF). Marayag said the caretakers of the house, Nursitti and Kilsitta, were also taken into custody after the...

Sayyaf chief dies while in Navy’s custody An alleged Abu Sayyaf leader reportedly died while in the custody of naval personnel in Zamboanga City, where he was brought for interrogation, a military officer said Saturday. The officer, who requested not to be named, said Tandico Saddae reportedly succumbed in a hospital in Zamboanga, where he was brought after complaining of chest pains Friday night. Saddae reportedly tried to escape by jumping from a Navy ship while being brought to Zamboanga from Tawi-Tawi, where he was arrested.“He jumped after asking his guard to [untie] him so could pray. He tried to...

The al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels have decapitated seven hostages and sent their heads to the army in Jolo, in the southern Philippines archipelago of Sulu, the local press said on Friday quoting the military. The severed heads of six road project workers and one factory worker were delivered to two army outposts in Parang town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, Thursday. The victims, all Christians, were working on a government road construction project in the city of Parang, Jolo, when they were abducted Tuesday by rebels led by commander Albader Parad. The Philiippine army said on...

JOLO, Philippines (Reuters) - Muslim extremists decapitated seven men they were holding hostage on the southern Philippine island of Jolo and sent the heads in sacks to two army detachments, the military said on Thursday. "This is a terrorist act that should be condemned by all," Major-General Ruben Rafael, commander of military forces on Jolo, said. Earlier, Rafael said his soldiers had discovered the headless bodies of six men close to Parang town, where they had been kidnapped on Monday by the Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines' deadliest Muslim rebel group. A seventh man was kidnapped in the area earlier that...

Six road workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf extremists were found beheaded Thursday in Jolo. The severed heads of the six mostly-Christian workers were found in the jungles of Jolo by soldiers, four days after the workers were seized while heading to a government road project, said Major General Ruben Rafael. The workers were seized by Al Bader Parad, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf, responsible for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history. One of the soldiers who found the remains said, on condition of anonymity, that the heads had been scattered in various places in Jolo. The soldier said...

The Philippine government and a Muslim rebel group have been urged to end a three-day battle that has left at least 12 people dead and displaced thousands.The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called on both sides to abide by a 1996 peace agreement. Government troops and helicopter gunships pounded a base of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on southern Jolo island at the weekend. It followed a mortar attack on two marine camps on Friday. That attack, which killed two marines and a child, has been blamed on an MNLF commander, Habier Malik. Government forces retaliated by...

WASHINGTON - The United States played a crucial but almost "invisible" role in finding and killing Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya by using a tracking device sewn into his backpack's fabric and plotting his movements with unmanned Predators and high-flying surveillance aircraft, The Atlantic magazine reported.In an article in its March issue, the magazine said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US military targeted Sabaya, whose real name was Aldam Tilao, and his group after they kidnapped American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and another American Guillermo Sobero in May 2001 holding them for ransom. “His removal by Philippine...

JAKARTA: The Abu Sayyaf group is in disarray as there is no apparent leader following the death of its chief Khaddafy Janjalani, said Philippine Foreign Minister Dr Elberto G. Romulo. “We have decimated most of their leadership and destroyed the largest training camps set up by (Abu Sayyaf) and Jemaah Islamiah. “Two foreign terrorists, Umar Patek and Dulmantin, who are Jemaah Islamiah operatives involved in the Bali bombings, are also on the run and believed to be in Sulu, where the military was conducting its operation,” he said in his policy speech at the two-day Sub-Regional Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism...

Cotabato City, 12 Feb. (AKI) - Manila's fight against terrorism has found support from a group of "muftis" – experts in Islamic law - who have written a "khutba" - a year-round sermon - aimed at discrediting the idea of terrorism as part of jihad or holy war. One of the writers, Ustadz [teacher] Abdullah Hamja Utto, mufti of the island of Basilan, said that the sermon is necessary because "Islamic terrorists, who barely understood the Koran, often resorted to corrupting its verses to gain support." According to a report on the Filipino newspaper, The Daily Inquirer, among the key...

UNIDENTIFIED gunmen shot and killed a brother-in-law of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid on his home in Madagascar, his brother said. Malek Khalifa told Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that the aim of the killers appeared to have been to rob his brother, Jamal Khalifa, who mined and traded precious stones in Madagascar.

SOUTHEAST Asia's most wanted terrorist, Bali bomb mastermind Dulmatin, has been wounded in a fierce gunfight on remote Jolo Island in a significant win for US-backed Philippines forces battling to "eliminate" the Jemaah Islamiah kingpin and his Abu Sayyaf cronies. The Australian, in a series of interviews with the top Philippines and US commanders in the southern Philippines, has also learned that Dulmatin, along with his JI Bali bomber partner Patek, are on the run for their lives on Jolo. The pair spend no longer than six hours in one place on the jungle-covered volcanic island. According to Philippines Brigadier-General...

THEY NUMBERED only a little over two dozen, some of them were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. About 200 Abu Sayyaf bandits were closing in on them.But the young Marines were united by one resolve: There would be no retreat, they would go down together.“I looked to my side, one of my men was dead. On my other side, one was wounded. Behind me, someone had blood gushing from his face,” 2nd Lt. Romulo Dimayuga said yesterday, recalling the battle in Sulu province last Sept. 4 in which his men killed top Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy...

The director of the CIA praised the Philippines on Thursday for its fight against terrorists, saying the country's government and military have worked closely with the United States to decrease the threat from extremists. CIA Director Michael Hayden told lawmakers that U.S.-Philippine cooperation has "contributed greatly to strengthening the capacity of the Philippine armed forces and the Philippine security services." "In terms of what intelligence and military power can do, it's done it in this part of the global war" against terror, Hayden said at a House of Representatives Intelligence Committee hearing. On Wednesday, the Philippine military announced the death...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- DNA tests confirmed the death of the leader of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf terror group that was responsible for the beheading of a California tourist and the kidnapping of two American missionaries, officials said Saturday. The Abu Sayyaf leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, was killed in September in fighting with U.S.-backed Philippine troops, who also killed Janjalani's possible successor in an operation on Tuesday. The deaths of Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman, who was wanted in the abduction of the three Americans and the deaths of two of them, mark a major victory in the campaign against Islamic militants...

DNA tests conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation have determined that a body recovered in the Philippines last month was that of Khadaffy Janjalani, head of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The body was in an advanced state of decomposition when it was discovered on the southern island of Jolo in a shallow grave. The state of the body made direct identification impossible. The 31 year-old Abu Sayyaf leader was south-east Asia's most wanted man and authorities were offering a five million dollar reward for his capture. Abu Sayyaf is trying to create an Islamic state...

MANILA, Philippines - DNA test results confirmed that the leader of the al-Qaida linked group Abu Sayyaf was killed during a clash with Philippine troops in September, officials said Saturday. Khaddafy Janjalani's death was confirmed after DNA tests were conducted in the U.S. to compare tissue samples taken from remains found buried in the jungles of southern Jolo island in December with those of Janjalani's relatives, military Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said Saturday. The news came just days after U.S.-backed Philippine troops killed senior Abu Sayyaf commander Abu Sulaiman, marking a major victory in a U.S.-backed campaign to...

Philippine troops step up offensive against Abu Sayyaf Date: January 19 2007 MANILA: Philippine soldiers killed 10 Islamic rebels in fresh fighting in the south yesterday as the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, vowed to put down the militants "with a hand of steel". Lieutenant-Colonel Ariel Caculitan, a marine spokesman, said 10 Abu Sayyaf militants and three soldiers were killed in an hour-long gun battle on the island of Jolo, where most of the militant group has taken shelter. Two rebels were captured. About 100 US military advisers are on Jolo to provide intelligence and training to the 7000 Philippine troops...

MANILA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A key leader of the Philippine terrorist group Abu Sayyaf wanted by the United States government had been killed by elite government forces following a fierce clash in the jungles of Talipao town in the southern island province of Sulu on Tuesday, said Philippine military Wednesday. Philipine Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military now expects the terrorist activities of the Abu Sayyaf to "go down considerably" because of the death of Jaenal Antel Sali, popularly known as Abu Solaiman. An engineer by profession, Solaiman had a 5 million U.S....

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - At least 10 Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in the Philippines in intensified operations ordered by President Gloria Arroyo a day after the military said it had slain their main leader. The fighting on the southern Philippines island of Jolo came shortly after Arroyo pledged to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf group following the reported killing of one of its leaders, Abu Solaiman, in a gunbattle. The fighting took place when marine troops caught up with a large group of Abu Sayyaf militants near the town of Patikul, the military's southern command said. Initial reports from...

MANILA, Philippines - A top al-Qaida-linked militant, long wanted by U.S. and Philippine authorities for deadly terror attacks, has been killed in a clash with troops in a major blow to his rebel group, the military said Wednesday. Jainal Antel Sali, popularly known as Abu Sulaiman - a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group - was fatally shot Tuesday in a fierce gunbattle with army special forces on the mountainous southern island of Jolo, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said, confirming earlier reports of the militant's death. Esperon warned Sulaiman's death could set off retaliatory attacks, but the...

Philippines militant 'shot dead' Gen Esperon showed journalists pictures of the dead militant A key member of the Philippines-based militant group Abu Sayyaf has been killed in a gun battle, the army says.Abu Sulaiman, also known as Jainal Antal Sali, was fatally wounded in a clash with soldiers on the southern island of Jolo, the army's chief said. Sulaiman had a $5m bounty placed on his head by the US, in part for the 2001 abduction of a group of tourists on the island of Palawan. The kidnapping resulted in the deaths of two Americans and several others. Sulaiman...

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine troops battled al-Qaida-linked Muslim extremists in the southern Philippines and officials were trying to determine Wednesday if a key leader was killed, the military said. Army soldiers fought 60 Abu Sayyaf members in mountainous Talipao town on Jolo island on Monday, military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said. Talipao is 590 miles south of Manila. The clash with the group headed by Abu Sulaiman, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader on a U.S. list of terrorists, also left two soldiers wounded. Bacarro said Sulaiman is believed to have been fatally shot. "All indications are it's Sulaiman," Bacarro...

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - The Philippines military said it had killed Abu Solaiman, a senior leader with the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group who had a five-million-dollar bounty on his head. Initial reports after a clash with troops Monday on the southern island of Jolo had suggested he was wounded and another Abu Sayyaf member slain. But military spokesman Major Eugene Batara said the dead man "was confirmed to be Abu Solaiman" after intelligence agents examined the body. The agents compared it to known pictures, but the military will also check the body's fingerprints just to be sure, Batara added....

It may take another week to confirm whether decomposing remains found buried in a remote site on Jolo island, southern Philippines, are those of Khaddafy Janjalani, the elusive chief of Abu Sayyaf group (ASG). Since troops recovered the remains in late December, American and Filipino forensic experts have been conducting DNA tests on tissue samples from the cadaver to be matched with those of Khaddafy’s older brother, Hector Janjalani, who is currently in jail in Manila for abducting an American in August 2000. Given the fact that numerous official reports in the past on the death of Khaddafy turned out...

MANILA (AP): An Indonesian member of the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) was among six Muslim militants killed at the weekend in a sea clash with Philippine troops off the country's southern coast, an official said Sunday. The Philippine army, navy, and marines were involved in Saturday's gunbattle that killed the six militants aboard a motorboat off Tawi Tawi province, 1,050 kilometers southwest of Manila, navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo said. Indonesian terrorist suspect Gufran, allegedly belonged to the Indonesian-based militant group JI, was among the dead, Bacordo said. Five Filipinos members of Abu Sayyaf, a group also thought...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine troops on Saturday killed six members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, including one wanted by the United States for involvement in the kidnapping of Americans, a military spokesman said. Philippine navy and army special forces troops backed by marines clashed with a group of rebels in waters off Panglima Sugala, southern Tawi-Tawi province Saturday, killing all six gunmen on a boat, said Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro. One of those killed, Judnam Jamalul, is among 17 Abu Sayyaf leaders and members who are wanted by the United States for involvement in attacks on American citizens....

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - The United States is helping the Philippine government identify the remains of a man said to be the elusive leader of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terror group, the Philippine military chief has said. General Hermogenes Esperon said US and Filipino forensics experts were now working on DNA samples to establish whether the body was that of Khadaffy Janjalani. He told reporters in Manila the DNA would be checked against that of Khadaffy's older brother Hector Janjalani, now in jail in Manila. The decomposing body was recovered from a shallow grave outside Patikul town on the...