INQUIRER.net
Last updated 04:54pm (Mla time) 01/25/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) One of two Jemaah Islamiyah explosives experts being coddled by the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf was reported hurt in an encounter with elite Army troops in the jungles of Sulu last January 18, an official said.
Quoting intelligence information, Brigadier General Arturo Ortiz said Dulmatin, an Indonesian national, sustained gunshot wounds in the encounter on Mt. Dajo in Talipao town, where Abu Sayyaf spokesman Jainal Antel Sali Jr., known as Abu Sulaiman, was killed two days earlier.
"There are reports that Dulmatin was injured but there is no confirmation yet," Ortiz told a news conference in Camp Aguinaldo.Dulmatin and another JI member, Umar Patek, are believed to be in Sulu. Both are wanted in Indonesia for allegedly helping to plot the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people on the resort island of Bali.
The two, and Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, who security officials say is confirmed to be dead based on DNA tests on samples taken from remains dug up in Sulu, have been the target of a military campaign that began last August.
Sulaiman was believed to have been designated the new leader of the violent group following the death of Janjalani.
Army First Lieutenant Almirante Mijares said he led the attack on the Abu Sayyaf camp, which housed about 60 guerrillas, after receiving an intelligence tip that Dulmatin, who uses one name like many Indonesians, Sulaiman and a prominent local rebel fighter, Albader Parad, were hiding in the forested area.
"Dulmatin was also hit in that clash," Mijares said at the news conference where he and other army officers recounted details of the daytime assault. He did not elaborate.
"After the gunbattle, we only recovered the body of Abu Sulaiman," he said.
Mijares said he and his men managed to get close to the fog-shrouded Abu Sayyaf encampment in the wilderness and then saw a militant, who later turned out to be Sulaiman, walking toward the fringes to relieve himself in the bushes. His two bodyguards were watching close by.
A soldier pointed his M-14 rifle at Sulaiman and ordered him to keep quiet, but the militant shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," apparently to warn his comrades of the raid. The soldier shot and killed him, and the gunfire set off the clash, Mijares said.
After more than an hour of fighting, most of the guerrillas fled, he said.
The killings of Sulaiman and Janjalani were a major victory for the Philippine military after years of frustrated US-backed operations to find the two. The duo have been accused of plotting major terror attacks, including a 2004 bomb that ignited a fire aboard a ferry near Manila Bay, killing 116 people in one of the worst terror strikes in Southeast Asia.
The two had extensive contacts with foreign militants, including Indonesian and Middle Eastern financiers who provided funds and combat trainers, and their deaths were a major loss for the Abu Sayyaf, security officials said.
Military Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon said a massive US-backed military offensive that started August 1 on Jolo Island would focus next on getting Dulmatin and another Bali bombing suspect, Umar Patek.
Washington has offered a US$10 million reward for the capture or killing of Dulmatin.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo commended Mijares and other soldiers responsible for the killing of Janjalani and Sulaiman during a dinner Wednesday that was also attended by US Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes.
Hughes also praised the troops for killing the Abu Sayyaf leaders.
With The Associated Press
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