Abu Sayyaf Leader Killed

Dateline Philippines:

The announcement Wednesday of the killing of Abu Sulaiman, a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group, represents a major blow against one of the world's most notorious terror organizations. Sulaiman, a 41-year-old whose real name is Jainal Antel Sali Jr., left a legacy of lethal attacks and ransom kidnappings — outrages that put him on both the U.S. and the Philippine most-wanted lists.

Sulaiman claimed responsibility for a 2004 bombing aboard a ferry in the Philippines. The blast and resulting fire killed 116 people, in Southeast Asia's second-worst terror attack.

But he was best known in the U.S., perhaps, as the mastermind of the kidnapping of American and Filipino tourists from a resort on the southeastern island of Palawan in 2001. One of the Americans, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded.

More on Abu Sulaiman, known as "The Engineer".

The local armed forces warn of possible retaliation from Abu Sayyaf via Philippine-based GMAnews.tv.

Abu Sayyaf is connected to Jemaah Islamiyah, the Pacific rim arm of Al Qaeda. It's a rag tag group of armed thugs and pirates terrorizing the southern Philippines by kidnapping locals and tourists for ransom. Abu Sayyaf sows terrorism for monetary gain as opposed to espousing any autonomous ideology, setting it apart from the separatist rebels who were the traditional sources of conflict in Mindanao. Mindanao is a predominantly Muslim region and the second largest island in the Philippines.

More on Abu Sayyaf at Wikipedia.

Image: AP/Bullitt Marquez.


+Save/Share | |