COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, may have been killed, but the government still has to track down at least 300 bomb makers he trained in Central Mindanao over the past two years.
Rebel sources confirmed yesterday that Marwan had operated in a marshland straddling North Cotabato and Maguindanao and trained recruits on how to handle explosives and fabricate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using locally available materials sourced from rebel armories, like B-40 anti-tank rockets and mortar projectiles.
“About 50 of the recruits Marwan trained were ethnic Maranaw jihadists from Lanao del Sur and Marawi City,” said a source who asked not to be identified.
Marwan was frequently spotted in Lanao del Sur, particularly in the jungles of Mt. Cararao and the Unayan area where local armed groups have sheltered his trainees.
The Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have failed to verify the presence of Marwan in the area.
“The people they were searching for knew a joint verification team would be arriving. They dispersed in the surroundings and calmly watched the soldiers and MILF members walk around their hideouts, which they abandoned temporarily to avoid detection. They even took footage of them roaming around using mobile phones,” said the source, a local health worker who refused to be identified.
Marwan last met with his Maranaw contacts in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in mid-2014, a local Muslim official said.
He said jihadists from Lanao del Sur traveled to Maguindanao.
Video footage uploaded on a Facebook account by an extremist group in Lanao del Sur showed the vehicle of the Maranaws traveling to Maguindanao.
Marwan was reportedly killed during a raid by police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.
The police commandos later encountered Muslim rebels that resulted in the death of 44 SAF operatives.
The police commandos launched an operation in Mamasapano to get Marwan and his Maguindanaon cohort Basit Usma, who have been linked to the international terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Marwan, who had a $5-million bounty, was allegedly killed during the operation while Usman, who has a $2-million bounty, escaped. Marwan’s body has not yet been recovered.
A DNA test conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that Marwan was indeed killed by the SAF commandos.
MILF leader Hadji Murad Ebrahim had also confirmed that Marwan was killed by the police commandos who raided his hideout in Mamasapano.
There are also reports that Marwan had sired two sons with two Maguindanaon women. The sons are now staying with relatives of their mothers in Sarangani and in President Quirino in Sultan Kudarat.
Authorities confirmed yesterday that Marwan and Usman had trained the two bombers killed last Monday night when a bomb they were to bring to Pikit, North Cotabato exploded prematurely while in transit.
Suspected bombers Jomar Palaguyan and Asraf Mohammad were riding a motorcycle and carrying a box containing the improvised device that exploded along Quezon Street in Pikit.
Senior Inspector Sindatu Karim, chief of Pikit police, said they learned that Marwan and Usman trained Palaguyan and Mohammad.
The attempt by Palaguyan and Mohammad to set off a bomb in Pikit was part of the operations of Marwan’s group.
Army officials in North Cotabato said there were signs that Marwan’s recruits were behind the foiled attempt to topple down last Tuesday another power relay tower of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines in Maguindanao’s nearby Pagalungan town.
Two NGCP steel pylons, one in Pagalungan and another in Barangay Batulawan in Pikit, were destroyed one after another by bombers just two weeks ago, causing power outage in parts of Maguindanao and North Cotabato and all 37 barangays in Cotabato City.
The bombers strapped improvised bombs on columns of the NGCP tower last Tuesday, but local farmers discovered these and alerted the police and military and the bombs were diffused.