Abu Sayyaf leader killed in Philippines

A leading member of the Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the killing of a US Special Forces soldier from 1st Special Forces Group, SFC Mark Jackson and a string of bombings in the southern Philippines, was killed early Tuesday, the military said.

An elite army unit and military intelligence operatives raided a suspected hideout of the Islamic militant group in Curuan district of the southern port of Zamboanga before dawn and killed Amilhamja Ajijul in a firefight, said Colonel Edgardo Gidaya.

He described Ajijul as the head of an Abu Sayyaf unit engaged in ”urban terrorism”.

One other Abu Sayyaf suspect was killed while four others were arrested in the military raid, Gidaya told AFP.

The official said Ajijul was wanted for the bombing of two shopping malls in Zamboanga in 2002 that claimed several lives, as well as the 2000 kidnapping of 53 students and teachers at a Roman Catholic school from nearby Basilan island.

Gidaya said Ajijul was also the principal suspect in the 2002 bombing of a Zamboanga restaurant that killed a US soldier taking part in counter-terrorist joint military exercises.

“This is a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf,” Gidaya said. “We had received a report that they were planning something this Holy Week,” he added without elaborating.

The Abu Sayyaf, thought to number some 500 militants, has been blamed for the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including the firebombing of a passenger ferry on Manila Bay that claimed more than 100 lives, and the kidnappings of Western tourists that led to the deaths of two American captives in 2001 and 2002.

US and Filipino intelligence officials have linked the Abu Sayyaf group to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.

US Special Forces units have deployed in the southern hilippines in recent years to train Filipino troops ighting the Abu Sayyaf.