AFP handout photo purporting to show the dead Abdul Basit Usman
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is "welcome" to claim its men slew Abdul Basit Usman, but as far as the military is concerned, the wanted bomb maker was killed by his own men, who were supposedly fighting over the $1-million bounty offered by the
"Based on initial reports that we have, Usman was
killed in a shootout between his men. Five others were killed in that incident.
We welcome though the claim of the MILF that they were the ones who killed
Usman," Armed Forces of the Philippines Civil Relations Service chief
Brigadier General Joselito Kakilala said in an interview with Interaksyon.com.
However, Kakilala also acknowledged that there is no
conclusive evidence to establish whom to credit for the death of Usman, who
escaped the disastrous January 25 Special Action Force operation in Mamasapano,
Maguindanao. That mission left Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias
"Marwan," dead, but at the cost of 44 police commandos, 17 MILF
fighters and at least three civilians.
"General Catapang has ordered Major General (Edmundo)
Pangilinan, commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division to submit the
soonest possible his special report about Usman’s death that would be the final
report of the AFP. By then we will know who really killed Usman," Kakilala
said.
Kakilala declined to say how the military was able to
produce a photograph purporting to show Usman’s body except to point out that
the military has a "very broad" intelligence network.
"I don't want to preempt the report of Major General
Pangilinan that he will be submitting to General Catapang," he said.
Kakilala also said they had received reports Usman’s killers
had left his body behind and that this could have been retrieved by MILF
fighters who rushed to the area on hearing bursts of gunfire.
But in an earlier radio interview, MILF chief negotiator
Mohagher Iqbal said the responding MILF fighters reported that Usman’s body had
been taken by his men.
In a separate radio interview, MILF vice chairman for
political affairs Ghadzali Jaafar claimed MILF fighters engaged Usman’s group
in a firefight in which the bomber was killed.
A ranking intelligence officer who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he is not allowed to speak on the matter said fighters of the
MILF’s 118th Base Command under Wahid Tundok retrieved the body of Usman and
took it to Camp Darapanan, where MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim is based,
for burial.
Kakilala said they too have received intelligence reports
Usman’s body was retrieved by Tundok's men.
After Marwan’s death, Usman and his men were initially
protected by the group of Muhammad Ali Tambako, a known commander of the
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter, which broke away from the MILF. However,
Tambako and five aides were captured amid a military offensive against their
group.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/109971/afp-insists-usmans-men-killed-him-but-welcomes-milf-claim
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