June 23, 2002, MSNBC, Captive rebels offer details of leader's killing,

June 23, 2002, MSNBC, Captive rebels offer details of leader's killing, 

Caption: Filipino Army special forces scour the shorelines Sunday as they search for the body of Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya off the coast of Sibuco in the southern Philippines. No remains of Sabaya's body have been recovered.

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines, June 23 - Philippine armed forces, fresh from a clash believed to have killed one leader of a Muslim extremist group, have new marching orders: "Get the others." Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, chief of the southern Philippines forces, said Sunday that the military was now targeting Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani and another senior leader, Ghalib Andang, known as Commander Robot.

"THE MARCHING ORDERS of the president is get the others. The priority is Janjalani and Robot," Carolina said.

He said "Operation Daylight" also includes rescuing three Indonesians seized from a tugboat last Monday by suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels and taken to Jolo island where Robot operates. The island is about 590 miles south of Manila.

Khaddafy is the brother of Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who founded the group, which the United States claims has ties to al-Qaida, in the early 1990s and was killed in a police raid in 1998. Robot led the abduction of 21 people, including Western tourists, from a Malaysian resort in April 2000. 


All but one were released in exchange for large ransoms. Another Abu Sayyaf leader, Abu Sabaya, was believed to have been killed with two of his men in a gunbattle Friday off Mindanao island. Sabaya spearheaded the kidnapping last year of 17 Filipinos and three Americans - missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., and Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif. Abu Sayyaf later abducted dozens more. Some, including Sobero, were killed; others escaped and the rest were freed, reportedly for large ransoms.

DETAILS OF SABAYA'S DEATH

The kidnappings helped trigger the deployment of about 1,000 U.S. troops to the southern Philippines for a counterterrorism training exercise with Philippine soldiers in the first expansion of the American war on
terrorism outside Afghanistan.

The United States linked Abu Sayyaf with Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network and has rewards of up to $5 million on each of the heads of five of the Muslim militant group's leaders, including Sabaya.

On Sunday, Carolina showed reporters a videotape of two guerrillas captured during Friday's gun battle being interrogated. Both claimed they saw Sabaya fall into the sea after being hit by gunfire.

The two captured rebels, Adzmar Alok and Abdurakman Ismael, recounted how sailors shot Sabaya dead.

The Filipino government said Abu Sabaya fell into the water along with two other rebels after they were hit by naval gunfire in a clash with a Navy patrol on Friday off southern Zamboanga del Norte province. Many on the southern island of Mindinao were unconvinced.

"For people living in the throes of terror for years now, it is very important for them to be fully convinced of the death (of Sabaya)," Roman Catholic Bishop Antonio Ledesma told reporters.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Alok and Ismael both said they saw Sabaya get shot in the back after sailors rammed their speedboat as they tried to flee to a nearby island.

"He got hit here in the back ... When he fell off the boat, the soldiers kept on firing. I jumped into the sea," Alok said.


Sabaya, a former naval cadet, was the best known leader of the Abu Sayyaf group which claims to be fighting for a Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines but concentrates on kidnap for ransom.

Three days of sea search have failed to produce any trace of Sabaya and his two other followers. Dozens of fishermen have joined in the search after the military announced a reward of $1,000 for anyone who could find Sabaya's body.

BURNHAM WAS 'HIGH RISK'

Alok also said gave what the military said was an eyewitness account of how American missionary Martin Burnham was killed during a gunbattle between the guerrillas and soldiers sent to rescue him, his wife and Filipina nurse Deborah Yab from more than a year of rebel captivity.

Alok said he saw Burnham shot by one of his companions on Sabaya's orders.

"Once the soldiers get near, kill that Martin," Alok quoted Sabaya as ordering his men.

It remains unclear who fired the shots that killed the missionary, but Carolina said officials were "sure" it was Abu Sayyaf gunfire.

He said the military considered Burnham "high risk" because he was the only hostage kept in chains most of the time.

"The plan was to locate immediately who is that guy where Martin is chained to and we should get that guy first," Carolina said.