MANILA, Philippines — At least 15 Islamic extremists, including three senior leaders, were killed in an air raid in Parang town in Sulu at dawn Thursday.
Abu Sayyaf commander Umbra Jumdail, also known as Abu Pula, and Jemaah Islamiyah leaders Zulkifli bin Hir or Marwan, and Abdullah Ali, who uses the guerrilla name Muawiyah Anjala, were the senior leaders killed in the air strikes, said military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos.
Zulkifli is a Malaysian leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant organization blamed for some of Southeast Asia’s deadliest terrorist attacks including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people.
Zulkifli, an explosive expert, was the over-all leader of the JI in the Philippines, said Burgos.
The US government has offered $5 million (S$6.3 million) and P7.4 million reward from the DND and DILG for Zulkifli’s capture.
Muawiyah, who goes by many aliases, is a Singaporean member of JI who fled to the Philippines shortly after the Bali bombings, according to a Philippine military intelligence officer.
He was also a JI member affiliated with the Abu Sayyaf and had contact with Omar Patek, Burgos said. The US offered a US$50,000 reward for his arrest.
Jumdail, a member of the Tausug ethnic group, is a founder and one of the most senior figures of the Abu Sayyaf group, which was established in Mindanao in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda-network.
He had warrants of arrest for 21 counts of kidnapping and serious illegal detention and was involved in the 2000 kidnapping in Sipadan, Malaysia and the 2001 kidnapping in Dos Palmas resort in Palawan. A P7.4 million bounty from the Department of National Defense and Deparment of Interior and Local Government, and P$140,000 reward from the US were offered for his capture.