ISAFP chief confirms JI leader who was reported killed still alive

Published August 6, 2014 2:45pm

(Updated 11:20 p.m.) A top Armed Forces intelligence official on Wednesday said there is a "big possibility" that Malaysian terrorist leader Zulkifli Abdul Hir alias Marwan — who authorities said was killed in a military operation in Jolo in 2012 — is still alive.

"As far as we are concerned, malaking posibility na Marwan is still alive," said Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), noting "consistent reports" of Marwan's supposed presence in the Cotabato area in southern Philippines.

"May mga consistent reports kasi kami ng presence nya (Marwan) sa Cotabato area, may mga sources kami na nagsasabi na na-meet nila 'yan si Marwan and there was no really concrete evidence that would show that he was killed during the miltiary offensive I think two years ago," he said.

Año was referring to the February 2012 air strike in Jolo that reportedly killed several Abu Sayyaf members, including Marwan, who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted Terrorists' list.

Año said Zulkifli was believed to be in contact with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a small band of Islamic militants fighting for an independent Muslim homeland in the south.

He said there were 10 to 12 foreign Jemaah Islamiyah members in the southern Philippines, and that Zulkifli was "the most prominent" of them.

The spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sounded more certain than General Año .

"He is alive and we continue to monitor him," Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala told the Agence France Presse .

Zulkifli is regarded as an expert bomb maker and a senior leader of Jemaah Islamiyah who first went into hiding in the southern Philippines in 2003.

In 2007 the US government offered a $5-million reward for his capture, making him one of the United States' most-wanted men.

Another top Jemaah Islamiyah member, Singaporean Mohammad Ali, alias Muawiyah, was also declared killed in the airstrike, along with a Filipino leader of the Abu Sayyaf.

"This is a big victory. There were three senior leaders (killed). This will have a very big impact on the capability of the terrorists," then-regional military commander Major General Noel Coballes said at the time.

Shortly afterwards, Malaysia expressed doubts about the purported killings but the Philippines' then military spokesman insisted all three were dead.

"Yes, its an A-1 (information). We have something but we cannot divulge all the other information because its an operational (secret)," Arnulfo Burgos, Zagala's predecessor, said at the time.

However Zagala insisted on Wednesday that the Philippine military had never said Zulkifli had definitely been killed.

"There were reports that said he was dead but it was never validated... we never confirmed he was dead," he told AFP.

Zagala declined to answer further questions about the case, such as whether the other two top militants were also alive.

It was arrested Abu Sayyaf leader Khair Mundos who first bared that the Malaysia-born Marwan, who had trained as an engineer in the United States, was still alive contrary to the military's earlier pronouncements. Mundos was arrested by in Manila on June 11.

The Jemaah Islamiyah is a terrorist network linked to recent terrorist attacks in Asia, including the 2002 Bali bombings.

Año said there are "more or less" 10 to 12 JI operatives operating in the country, most of them in Sulu mingling with the Abu Sayyaf bandit group notorious for kidnapping and bombing activities in the past.

"Pero ang pinaka-prominent lang dyan [ay] si Marwan, the rest... hindi ganung kaprominente na," he said. — with Agence France-Presse/KBK, GMA News

Tags: marwan, zulkifliabdulhir, jemaahislamiyah, terrorism, abusayyaf