Suspected Abu Sayyaf insurgent "killed" in Pakistan; AFP to confirm report

Friday, 22 January 2010 04:48 PM Merck Maguddayao

Suspected Abu Sayyaf “bomb expert” Abdul Basit Usman was reportedly "killed" in Pakistan last January 14, according to NYtimes.com.

Usman was reportedly hit by a United States (US)-led drone attack aimed at Pakistani Taliban insurgents in the South Waziristan region. According to Dawn.com, the attack fatally hit Usman along with more than ten insurgents hiding inside the house of a certain Yaqub Khan.

Meanwhile, the report is yet to be “verified” by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), according to Lieutenant General Benjamin Tolentino of the Southwestern Mindanao Command.

"If the reports are true then it is good news for us because the killing of Basit Usman means one less terrorist on the street," Dolorfino said in news.bbc.co.uk.

AFP spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Browner seconded Tolentino's earlier statement, saying that “to some extent, it (Usman's death) will cripple their capability because he is an expert on improvised explosive device and bombs.”

In 2007, the US State Department issued a US$50,000 (P2.3 million) bounty on Usman. The Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines subsequently slammed Usman's manhunt as "political and military intervention by the US" in the Philippines.

The State Department tagged Usman as responsible for the series of bombings in Mindanao from 2006-2007 and is believed to have links with the local Abu Sayyaf group and the regional Jema'ah Islamiyah terrorist network.

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