Philippine police shot dead an Abu Sayyaf militant on Basilan island on Wednesday night, ending a manhunt that had run for weeks. Nawapi Abdulsaid, who went by the name Khatan, died in a brief gunbattle in the remote coastal town of Hadji Mohammad Ajul, security officials said Friday. Military intelligence agents backed the police.
A confidential police report tied Abdulsaid to at least 15 beheadings in Basilan. They included the killing of 10 Philippine marines in Al-Barka town in 2007 and of two of six kidnapped Vietnamese sailors near Sumisip town in 2016. The Vietnamese had been taken off a passing cargo ship.
The report also linked him to attacks on government forces in 2022 and to a bombing in November that killed two pro-government militiamen and wounded two more.
Police put him under surveillance in February. They could not move in at once, the report said, because of the “hostile nature” of the area where he was finally shot.
Abdulsaid was one of several Abu Sayyaf members who pledged themselves to the Islamic State group. The United States and the Philippines have both blacklisted Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization over ransom kidnappings, beheadings and bombings. Battle losses, surrenders and infighting have weakened it, but it remains a security threat in the south, home to the country’s Muslim minority in a mostly Roman Catholic nation.
A busy week in the south
On Monday, troops killed the leader of another Muslim rebel group and 11 of his men in a separate clash in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, in Maguindanao del Sur province. The military said the group was blamed for past bombings and extortion. Seven soldiers were wounded in that fighting, which involved the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The Bangsamoro group and Abu Sayyaf are among the few small armed groups still fighting for a separatist uprising. The largest, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed a peace pact with the government in 2014. Its commanders now serve as parliamentarians and administrators of a five-province Muslim autonomous region, and they are preparing for a regular election next year.
Sources
- Philippine Authorities Kill Notorious Abu Sayyaf Militant Khatan, Linked to Multiple Beheadings and Attacks – Saudi Press
- Philippine police kill an Abu Sayyaf militant implicated in 15 beheadings and other atrocities
Sources
- Philippine Authorities Kill Notorious Abu Sayyaf Militant Khatan…
- Philippine police kill an Abu Sayyaf militant implicated in 15…
