MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Philippine military said it killed three of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorist leaders in a U.S.-backed airstrike that significantly weakened an Al-Qaida-linked network that had used islands in the southern Philippines as a hideout and training base.
The predawn strike targeting a militant camp on a remote island killed at least 15 people, including Malaysian Zulkipli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, a top leader of the regional Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, said military spokesman Col. Marcelo Burgos.
The United States had offered a $5 million reward for the capture of Marwan, a U.S.-trained engineer accused of involvement in deadly bombings in the Philippines and in training militants.
Also killed Thursday were the leader of the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf militants, Umbra Jumdail, and a Singaporean leader in Jemaah Islamiyah, Abdullah Ali, who used the guerrilla name Muawiyah, Burgos said. The bodies of the three were recovered and "positively identified by police and our intelligence informants at the site," Burgos said.
But on Friday, the military said that Marwan's body had not yet been found and that troops on the ground were still combing the jungle camp for his body. The house where Marwan was believed to have been was shattered by bombs, the officials said.
A U.S. official in Washington confirmed the strike on Jolo Island, an impoverished region 600 miles south of Manila, and said the Pentagon provided assistance in one of the region's most successful anti-terror operations in years. The strike debilitated a regional militant network that has relied on the restive southern Philippines -- sometimes called Southeast Asia's Afghanistan -- as a headquarters for planning bombings and a base for training and recruitment.
500-pound bombs dropped
About 30 militants were at the camp near Parang town on Jolo, the stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf and their allies from the mostly Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiyah, when it was bombarded by two turboprop light-attack OV10 aircraft dropping 500-pound bombs at 3 a.m., regional military commander Maj. Gen. Noel Coballes said. "Our report is there were at least 15 killed, including their three leaders," he said.
