A Filipino militant bomb-making expert who had been
believed dead recently eluded a military raid of a Muslim freedom fighter camp
in the Philippines, disproving earlier reports of his demise, the
military said Saturday.
Abdel Basit Usman is on the US government's list of most-wanted
"terrorists", described a "bomb-making expert", and the State Department
offered an $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest in
2009.
- The Filipino press had reported in 2010 that Usman was among several people believed killed early that year in a US drone attack that targeted a Pakistani Taliban leader in a remote area of northern Pakistan.
- However Philippine military officials now say that the reports of his death were erroneous.
Usman, who the Philippine and US governments say has links to the
Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf group of Southeast Asian militants, was
seen in the camp of another armed Muslim group on the island of
Mindanao, southern Philippines military spokesman Colonel Dickson
Hermoso told AFP.
The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) is a small offshoot of
the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, that waged a decades-long armed rebellion in the southern
Mindanao.
Source: Yahoo News
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