Abu Solaiman slain, military confirms

Joel Guinto Lira Dalangin-Fernandez ldalangin@inq7.net Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
First posted 15:01:05 (Mla time) January 17, 2007

THE MILITARY has confirmed that Abu Solaiman, spokesman of the Abu Sayyaf Group, was killed in an encounter with elite Philippine Army troops in Talipao, Sulu on Tuesday, as it warned that his death could set off retaliatory attacks.

Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, military public information chief, and Brigadier General Arturo Ortiz, chief of the Army Special Forces, said the body of Solaiman, who was also an Abu Sayyaf sub-leader, had been positively identified.

Military Chief Hermogenes Esperon said that Solaiman’s death could trigger retaliatory attacks but that they were ready to thwart any such assaults.

Malacañang, on learning of the news, hailed it as proof that the government is winning the war on terrorism and that the Abu Sayyaf “continues to weaken” as military operations against the bandit group have shifted the “center of gravity…on the commanders.”

"It will not be long before we can get all of them," Executive Secretary Eduardo said at his weekly news conference after being informed by the Armed Forces about Solaiman’s death.

Ermita described Solaiman’s death as an “effective collateral effect” of the Balikatan joint military operations with the US, which has provided equipment, training and intelligence to Filipino soldiers, especially those pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and other extremists.

The joint military exercises were almost suspended by the Americans this year over the custody of convicted US Marine Daniel Smith, who was sentenced to 40 years for raping a Filipina in late 2005. However, the US later said the exercises would push through after Smith, with the help of the Philippine government, was returned to the custody of the US embassy.

Ortiz's men led the siege on an Abu Sayyaf camp on Mt. Dajo in Talipao Tuesday morning. Solaiman was initially believed to have been wounded in the encounter.

In a text message Wednesday, Ortiz confirmed that civilian assets and intelligence operatives confirmed that the body of a slain bandit recovered from the scene of the encounter was Solaiman's.

The identification, he said, was based on a mole on the corpse’s eyelid and teeth placements.

"Our intelligence operatives have confirmed that Abu Solaiman was killed in the encounter yesterday [Tuesday]," Ortiz said.

Solaiman's body is being kept at Camp Teodulfo Bautista in Jolo, Sulu, headquarters of the 104th Army Brigade, Ortiz said.

Solaiman carried a $5-million bounty from the US government.

The group's chieftain, Khadaffy Janjalani, is suspected to have been killed in an encounter with government troops in Patikul, Sulu last September. Tissue samples from Janjalani's alleged remains, which were dug up last December 27, have been submitted for DNA testing in the US.

Last week, troops killed six Abu Sayyaf members, including three sub-commanders, and an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant in encounters in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Remarking on this, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared that Islamic extremists in the southern Philippines are "doomed to annihilation."

Troops have sealed off Sulu since August to catch Janjalani and two Jemaah Islamiyah members who allegedly masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings, Umar Patek and Dulmatin.

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