June 21 2002, AFP / Sydney Morning Herald, Commandos kill top Abu Sayyaf leader,

June 21 2002, AFP / Sydney Morning Herald, Commandos kill top Abu Sayyaf leader,


This file screen grab shows kidnapped US missionaries Martin Burnham and his wife Gracia Burnham in captivity with Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya (left). It was shown by local ABS-CBN television in November 2001. Photo: AFP

Zamboanga, Philippines: Philippine troops today recovered the body of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya, who was killed along with two of his men in a high seas shootout, a military official said.

The bodies of Abu Sabaya, Abu Musa and Ibno Hajim were recovered at sea off the southern Philippines town of Sibuco, Marine Colonel Juancho Saban told AFP.

Four other gunmen - Abdurahman Ismael, Tommy Rahim, Hassan Samsi and Adzmar Aluk - were taken into custody after the dawn firefight, he added.

Earlier, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said in a statement that Abu Sabaya - who has a $US1 million ($A1.8 million) US price tag on his head - was thought to have been fatally wounded during the dawn clash between an elite Navy Special Warfare Group (SWAG) unit and seven gunmen on a motorboat

"Three Abu Sayyaf members were wounded and jumped off their boat while four others were captured," she said after the incident off Sibcuo town on Mindanao island. 

The arrested gunmen "confirmed that one of those who jumped into the sea was Abu Sabaya, who was wearing a black sweatshirt.

"The SWAG team also confirmed shooting the man in the black sweatshirt. Government forces are now scouring the coast for Sabaya, or his body."

Abu Sabaya's death could prove a major blow to the Muslim rebels who have terrorised the Philippines and a swathe of the South China Seas since mid-2000 with their kidnap-for-ransom campaign.

It would also be a boost to the Philippine army which has deployed 5,000 troops in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf, with mixed results so far.

Today's clash occurred two weeks after the military rescued US hostage Gracia Burnham near Sibuco from more than a year in captivity.

But her American husband and fellow Christian missionary, Martin Burnham, and a Filipina captive nurse Ediborah Yap were slain in the fighting.

The Burnhams were among a group of tourists captured from a Philippine resort in May 2001. A third American tourist, Peru-born Guillermo Sobero, was later beheaded by the kidnappers along with about a dozen other captives.

The rebels were also behind a kidnapping on the Malaysian tourist island of Sipadan in April 2000, when a dozen foreigners were seized hostage and only returned after Libya reportedly paid huge ransoms.

The US government has offered a reward of as much as $US5 million ($A8.8 million) for information leading to the capture of group spokesman Abu Sabaya, the most high-profile Abu Sayyaf leader, and four other key Abu Sayyaf leaders.

The Abu Sayyaf has been linked by both Manila and Washington to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the September 11 attack in the United States.

"Terrorists will be hunted down relentlessly wherever they are, in the fastness of the jungle or in the high seas," Arroyo warned in her statement.

"They will be given no room to manoeuvre, to hide, or to rest. We will not stop until they are all accounted for."

Sabaya's unit had fled to a forested area near Sibuco with the hostages after they were flushed out of their stronghold on southern Basilan island by relentless military pressure, with the help of US military advisers and electronic surveillance.

US spokesman for the mission in the southern Philippines, Major Richard Sater, hailed the reports as "good news" and "a step forward against terrorism."

He told reporters in Zamboanga city that the mission received a Filipino military report at dawn "that Sabaya was among those killed".

"The operation was well-planned, well executed. We feel we can celebrate with the (armed forces of the Philippines)," he added.

Sater said the US forces in the area had provided "surveillance" and "communication equipment" to the Filipino troops involved in the firefight.

While Sabaya's group has been on the run, another suspected Abu Sayyaf faction based in the southern island of Jolo is holding three Indonesian seamen seized from a tugboat this week.

More than 1,000 US troops are in the southern Philippines advising Filipino troops operating against the Abu Sayyaf, but they are barred from combat except in self-defence.

AFP