Usman still in Mamasapano?

MAMASAPANO,  Maguindanao , Philippines – Wanted terrorist Abdul Basit Usman is wounded and hiding in a marshy area here, rebel sources said yesterday.

Usman, an accomplice of slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, is reportedly planning to escape to the northern part of the Liguasan delta, the source added.

Usman was wounded in the arm when members of the police’s Special Action Force stormed his hideout in Barangay Pidsandawan here last Jan. 25.

“Marwan was killed in that raid while Abdul Basit, who was in another house about 60 meters away, was wounded when he and his companions engaged the SAF team in a firefight,” a rebel, who asked not to be identified, said in the local language.

Marwan’s neighbors said he was known in the municipality as “Ibz,” while Usman was known as “Teng,” the source said.

Villagers identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Marwan was not buried near an old mosque in Barangay Tukanalipao as reported by a national television network.

Clerics residing at the mosque denied reports they facilitated Marwan’s burial at a Muslim cemetery near the worship site.

“He was buried not far from his hideout, in an unmarked grave,” a driver of a passenger vehicle said.

The source said Marwan died from gunshot wounds in the chest.

“The SAF team that raided his house was composed of about 30 men. They were able to kill him immediately. Usman and his companions engaged another group near them,” he added.

Usman managed to escape.

Villagers said Usman is hiding and is ready to leave if he would have the chance.

“He and Marwan stays in one house most of the time, but that time he (Usman) slept in another house, near the one where the SAF men killed Marwan,” a resident said.

An owner of a dry goods store here said to avoid detection, Marwan moves around Barangay Pidsandawan and into the Liguasan Delta.

“We believe there were MILF members who helped the police track him down because the raid was carried out at a time when he was in the village,” the merchant pointed out.

Usman was also known here as Marwan’s interpreter and “bagman.”

“Sometimes it was Usman who kept the money for Marwan,” another villager said.

Errand boys buy food and other provisions for Marwan and Usman from a public market in Sharif Aguak, the former provincial capital.

A farmer claiming to be a relative of Usman said the wanted terrorist went underground after working for several years in the Middle East as an electrician and an appliance repair man.

“He studied in a government technical school before he worked abroad,” the source said.

He said Usman returned to the country just as government forces were liberating MILF camps after then President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out war against the secessionist group.

Usman was said to have undergone training in handling and making explosives using materials available in guerilla arsenals.

He is known here for his skills in fabricating improvised blasting contraptions for home-made explosives.

“He perpetrated deadly bombings in retaliation for the military’s takeover of rebel territories in 2000,” another source said.

Rebel sources said rumors had it that Usman was involved in the detonation of a vehicle full of explosives along a road in Sharif Aguak.

The vehicle exploded as the convoy of then Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., who was hostile to local MILF commanders, was passing by. Eight men were killed in the incident.

Usman was also implicated in a bombing in Datu Piang town in December 2002, which killed Ampatuan’s son, Mayor Datu Saudi Ampatuan, and more than a dozen others.