Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan
A Malaysian bomb expert who was reportedly killed in a US-backed airstrike in the southern Philippine province of Sulu two years ago is alive and actively training recruits alongside with the militant group Abu Sayyaf.
Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, a leader of the Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, and member of the Jemaah Islamiya, had trained a significant number of bombers, including suicide bombers, including new cadre of Malaysian militants who are looking for combat experience before joining militant groups active in Syria and Iraq, aming them the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, according to a report by the Kuala Lumpur-based newspaper New Straits Times.
Citing intelligence sources, the report said those who had gone for training at the Abu Sayyaf camps had also participated in the group’s militant and criminal activities.
“We can confirm that he is very much alive and is passing on his knowledge and technical know-how at the Abu Sayyaf base. He is not as dead as is widely thought just well-hidden. Many up and coming terrorists and militants have gained immensely from his tutelage,” NST sources said.
The sources further said that militants were required to pay a significant amount of money for the training that would provide them with the skills and confidence needed in battle.
It was not immediately known whether the spike on ransom kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines and cross-border raids in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah was connected to the training of the militants or if ransom money is being used to finance the training and for the purchase of weapons by the group.
Just this month, Filipino troops stormed the hideout of a notorious militant leader Abdul Basit Usman - who also has links with al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya – in Maguindanao province, but he managed to escape after being shot and wounded in the massive military operation.
Brigadier General Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, said two other suspected militants were killed by soldiers during the raid in the hideout of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in the village called Libutan in Shariff Saydona Mustapha town.
He said Usman’s wife and three other women – two of them Indonesian nationals and a Filipina native of Sulu province - were also arrested and that one of them is the wife of Marwan. The names of the four women were not released by the military, but all of them are being interrogated separately by authorities.
He said they recovered a cache of weapons and improvised explosives, including a 155mm howitzer and mortar bombs and munitions. Troops also recovered a van and 7 motorcycles before rebels could rig it with explosives and use to bomb military and civilian targets. A wallet with Usman’s picture was also recovered in the area.
“We have recovered so many weapons and explosives, and there is also a Barrett sniper rifle, blasting caps and cell phones that they use as detonators, and 155mm (howitzer) and mortar bombs. The recovery of these war materials has saved a lot of lives,” Pangilinan said.
He said troops launched the raid after long surveillance operations and intelligence provided by civilians about Usman and the BIFF, blamed for the series of bombings in the restive Muslim autonomous region.
Philippine authorities have blamed Usman, also a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front commander, for the spate of deadly bombings in Mindanao the past two decades. The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group which recently signed a peace deal with Manila, has previously ordered its forces to hunt down Usman after he was linked to terror attacks.
In 2010, Pakistan military reported that Usman was killed along with another foreigner and 10 al-Qaeda militants in a US drone strike in the restive South Waziristan region, but the reports turned out to be false with the Philippine military saying that the militant leader was in Mindanao.
The United States has put up a $5 bounty for Marwan and $1million for Usman under its Government Rewards Program after they were tagged by authorities as behind deadly bombings in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Marwan, who was trained as an engineer in the United States, is also included in the “Most Wanted Terrorists” list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Filipino security officials have not issued any statement about the news that Marwan is alive, but security forces clashed recently with the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu province that killed and wounded at least 40 soldiers and militants. It was unknown whether Marwan or any other Malaysian or Indonesian militants were with the Abu Sayyaf group that clashed with government forces.
http://www.mindanaoexaminer.net/2014/06/malaysian-bomber-marwan-is-alive.html
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