`Son of slain Yakan cleric behind Marines’ beheading’

COTABATO CITY — Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar yesterday said a son of the slain Yakan cleric killed along with 14 Marines in a clash with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels on July 10 in Albarka, Basilan was responsible for the beheading of 10 of the soldiers.

Akbar said the same person was also behind the burning of two trucks that the Marines used to haul combatants to Albarka to search for kidnapped Italian missionary Giancarlo Bossi.

Akbar, however, declined to name the suspect, who, he said, is a son of Imam Matarul.

The imam’s mutilated cadaver was found beside the Marines killed in the firefight.

Matarul, also known as Imam Alkanul, helped guide the Marines to the spot where Bossi and his captors were reportedly seen.

The ambush occurred when the Marines were on their way to their headquarters after a failed search for Bossi in Barangay Guinanta.

“I will not ask the military not to run after those responsible for the beheading of the Marines who were killed in that incident,” Akbar said on the government’s punitive strike against MILF forces in his province.

Akbar’s wife, Jum, the newly elected governor of Basilan, said she shared the same position on the now seemingly unstoppable offensive to neutralize the group that ambushed the Marines.

Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ismail Khan, chief of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), arrived the other day from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Khan, however, refused to talk when asked if his group will help in the investigation of the July 10 incident in Basilan.

The IMT, composed of policemen and military personnel from Malaysia, Brunei, and Libya, and a rehabilitation expert from Japan, has been helping oversee the enforcement of the ceasefire between the government and the MILF since 2003.

Basilan is not covered by the terms of reference, or TOR, detailing the area of the IMT’s operations, which the GRP and MILF peace panels drafted, along with the Malaysian and Philippine governments, three years ago.

Earlier, the government and MILF peace committee heads separately announced their common investigation ahead of the reported military operation.

Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea, who heads the government’s Joint Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (JCCH), said his group and its MILF counterpart will start the investigation on the killing of the Marines ambushed by members of the MILF in Basilan.