Southeast Asian jihadist leader and bomb expert is alive, in Philippines

[Valin]

Long War Journal:

Bill Roggio

July 6, 2014

 

Zulkifli bin Hir, a jihadist commander and bomb expert who has worked with three jihadist groups in Southeast Asia and was reported killed by the Philippine military in 2012, is alive and thought to be operating in the southern Philippines.

 

The deputy chief of Malaysia's Counter Terrorism Division said that Zulkifli, who is a Malaysian citizen, is alive.

 

"We are aware of reports that said he was killed a few years ago. That is not true. We believe he is hiding in southern Philippines," Datuk Ayob Khan told the Malaysian Chronicle on July 3.

 

Two years ago, the Philippine Air Force asserted that Zulkifli and 14 other jihadists, including Umbra Jumdail, a senior Abu Sayyaf commander, were killed in an airstrike that targeted a camp in the village of Duyan Kabaw in Parang in the southern province of Sulu on Feb. 2, 2012.

 

"I am sure because I will not easily issue a statement here," Chief of Staff General Jessie Dellosa, the Philippines' top military commander, confidently said in a press briefing the day of the strike. "We have intelligence people and locals in the area."

 

But the military never recovered Zulkifli's body.

(Snip)

[Valin]

Philippines: Basit The Bomb Builder Back From The Dead

July 7, 2014:

 

The army recently revealed that a long-sought Islamic terrorist leader and bomb builder thought killed in 2010 (by an American missile in Pakistan) was now known to be hiding out with Filipino Moslem rebels in the south. Usman was seen in a * BIFF camp in June and the army is now searching for him. Usman is believed to be building bombs for BIFF, which have been used in several terror attacks in the south. The U.S. is offering a million dollar reward for Usman while the Filipino government is offering $144,000. A year after Usmans 2010 death Filipino intelligence obtained information indicating that Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert Basit Usman and a team of Islamic terrorists had trained at least twenty Filipinos on how to make and plant bombs, and that these men had been ordered to attack government and Christian targets (especially churches) in the south. Many members of the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had fled to the Philippines after 2005, and had once been under the protection of MILF. But that didnt last long once the al Qaeda affiliated JI began staging terror attacks throughout the Philippines. Basit Usman is one of the few remaining JI members at large in the Philippines, and is protected, in part, by rogue MILF radicals belonging to BIFF.

 

(Snip)

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* Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters