MILF denies links with slain bomber

GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines  – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has denied any links with Abdul Basit Usman, the Filipino Islamic militant reportedly killed during an air strike by US forces in a Taliban camp at the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan earlier this month.

In a statement posted on its website yesterday, the MILF denied Usman was a commander of its elite forces.

“He (Usman) has never been a member of the MILF,” the Muslim rebel group said.

Usman had reportedly led the MILF’s Special Operations Group, which was behind the spate of bomb attacks in North Cotabato and Central Mindanao in 2006.

Authorities had been hunting down Usman for leading the bombing of a crowded gymnasium in Makilala, North Cotabato that left five people dead and 30 others wounded.

Usman was captured but escaped and joined the Abu Sayyaf to train homegrown extremists on bomb making and handling of explosives.

He managed to slip into Pakistan to train Filipino recruits for the Abu Sayyaf.

Reports said Usman was killed last Jan. 14 when a US drone struck a compound in Pakistan’s Waziristan tribal region near the border of Afghanistan.

Eleven others were also killed in the air strike, which Pakistani officials earlier said was intended for Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

There had been no previous indications that Usman was in Pakistan. But if the reports of his death in Pakistan are true, it may indicate stronger ties between al-Qaeda and Southeast Asian terrorist groups than previously thought.

The US State Department included Usman in its list of most wanted terrorists with a $1-million bounty for his capture.

The Philippine military previously said Usman also had links to the MILF, citing records that he commanded the rebel front’s SOG before he disappeared from the government’s intelligence screen.

The MILF denied Usman led such a group but he was a key preacher in its ranks.

Ustadz Mohiden Usman confirmed his brother was a member of the MILF’s Da’wah (religious calling) committee.

At the same time, the MILF said they are not rejoicing over Usman’s death in Pakistan.

“The MILF doesn’t rejoice over deaths of people... not even the death of the harshest criminals or terrorists,” the rebel group said.

“But certainly, we welcome the death of anyone after a due process by a credible body has been done that such criminal deserved such fate,” it added.

In the case of Usman, the MILF said that if reports were true that the Filipino extremist was in full combat gear when he was killed in the air strike, then his death was a natural consequence of being in a war zone.

“Combatants go to battle to kill and get killed,” the MILF said.

The MILF reiterated that it had always been its stand to “disdain, oppose and dissociate” itself from terrorists and terrorism.

The MILF added the pursuit of its political objectives was based on jihadic and revolutionary principles.

“Jihad, which means ‘utmost striving following the rules of engagement in Islam,’ has never assumed the form of terrorism,” the rebel group clarified.

“Only the pseudo-jihadists and the Western media are the ones responsible for distorting the true concept of jihad, which has never changed since 1400 years ago during the time of Prophet Muhammad,” the MILF said. - With John Unson