AFP probes reported death of Abu Solaiman

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Philippine military officials are verifying information that Abu Sayyaf subleader Jainal Antel Sali Jr alias Abu Solaiman was killed in Tuesday’s encounter with Army troops in Talipao, Sulu. "We are still verifying that information and we have already sent out teams to validate said information," Armed Forces information chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro told GMANews.TV in a phone interview in Manila. But the spokesman for the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command based here said Sali, 41, was indeed killed in the three-hour clash in the vicinity of Mt. Daho in Talipao town. "He is dead. Abu Solaiman was killed in the fighting. His death is a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf," said Maj. Eugene Batara. Batara said troops have recovered the alleged body of Sali from the encounter site. An earlier military report said Sali, the self-proclaimed rebel spokesman, was wounded in the clash which also resulted in the killing of one bandit and the wounding of two Army Special Forces soldiers. Philippine Army spokesperson Maj. Ernesto Torres said the last information they got was that Sali was wounded during the said clash. For his part, Army Special Forces commander, Col. Arturo Ortiz said: "We are still confirming if Abu Solaiman was indeed killed." Sali is included in the US list of most wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders and was implicated in the kidnapping and killing of California man Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in 2002. Gracia Burnham was eventually rescued in 2002 in a firefight in Zamboanga del Norte province. Sali was also linked to the kidnapping of US citizen Jeffrey Craig Schilling in 2000 in Jolo island. Schilling was held hostage for more than seven months by the Abu Sayyaf and during his captivity, some of the demands made by the Abu Sayyaf were the release of international terrorist Ramsey Yousef and the blind Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman from US prison, the withdrawal of American forces from the Middle East and the payment of $10 million in ransom. Schilling eventually managed to escape from captivity on April 12, 2001. A US government dossier on Sali said he had planned and perpetrated several brutal acts of terrorism involving kidnapping US and foreign nationals and bombing civilian targets. In April 2004, Sali helped supervise members of the Abu Sayyaf's Urban Terror Group for planned bombing activities. Filipino authorities filed charges against Sali and two other leaders for their involvement in a series of bombings in October 2002 in Zamboanga City that killed at least a dozen Filipino civilians, an American soldier and the wounding of more than 200 others. Sali also headed the unit responsible for the October 17, 2002, bombings of two department stores in Zamboanga City. He also planned the May 2001 Dos Palmas resort kidnapping in Palawan where they took 20 hostages, including the Burnhams and Sobero. In January 2002, Sali made statements during a radio interview denouncing the arrival of US military advisors in the Philippines to participate in joint military exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines designed to locate and combat the Abu Sayyaf and rescue the hostages. Sali held several senior positions of influence within the Abu Sayyaf. In February 2002, the US indicted Sali and four other Abu Sayyaf leaders. Three years later, Sali accompanied Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and another senior leader Isnilon Hapilon to a meeting in the southern Philippines with senior leaders of Jema’ah Islamiyah, said to be the regional arm of the al-Qaeda terror network in Southeast Asia. - GMANews.TV