Philippines doubts reported killing of Filipino terror suspect in Pakistan

Philippines doubts militant was killed in Pakistan

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine military doubts reports that a Filipino terror suspect was killed in a U.S. missile attack in Pakistan, with one senior officer telling The Associated Press Thursday that the militant was sighted last week in the Philippines’ volatile south.

Pakistani military intelligence officers said last week that Abdul Basit Usman, who is wanted by the United States, was believed killed in an American drone strike on Jan. 14 on the border of Pakistan’s South and North Waziristan tribal regions.

Another 11 militants were also killed in the strike on a militant compound near the Afghan border. Authorities have previously said the attack had targeted the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud.

U.S. and Philippine military officials tried to verify the report. If confirmed, it could indicate stronger ties between Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and Southeast Asian terrorist groups than previously thought.

Philippine military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said their intelligence indicates so far that Usman has not left the country and is hiding in Muslim guerrilla strongholds in the south’s mountainous heartland.

The military, however, will continue to investigate and will be ready to cooperate with Pakistani authorities in conducting DNA tests if tissue samples from the slain militant can be secured.

“There is a bigger probability that it’s not him, than it’s him,” Brawner said.

The slain militant appears to have been a different person, also named Usman, said U.S. and Filipino military officials who oversee counterterrorism operations in the southern Philippines. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of their work.

The Philippine military official told The AP that Usman was sighted near southern Maguindanao province last week, adding he was “99 percent sure that he’s still here in the country.”

The U.S. State Department’s list of most-wanted terrorists identifies Usman as a bomb-making expert with links to the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf extremist group and the Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiyah network. It offers $1 million for information leading to his conviction, and says he is believed responsible for bombings in the southern Philippines in 2006 and 2007 that killed 15 people.

Philippine police captured Usman in 2002 for a bomb attack that killed 15 people and wounded 100 others in the southern port city of General Santos, but he escaped from jail, according to police.

Usman was among those charged for allegedly helping plot an Oct. 10, 2006 bombing that killed eight people and wounded 28 others near a Roman Catholic church during a fiesta celebration in Makilala town in southern North Cotabato province.

He also was charged in another bombing that day that wounded four people in a crowded public market in southern Tacurong city.

Usman has not been convicted of any of the crimes.