The Philippine military declared one of the region’s most notorious Muslim militants dead two years ago – but now say that the Malaysian bomb maker is still very much alive.
Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, also known as Marwan, who has a USD5 million (RM15.94 million) bounty on his head issued by the US government, is alive and kicking in the southern Philippines, senior military officials said.
“He is alive and we continue to monitor him,” Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala told AFP.
In February 2012, the Philippine military announced Zulkifli was among 15 members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah militant organisations killed in an air strike on the island of Jolo.
Zulkifli is known as an expert bomb maker and a senior leader of the Jemaah Islamiah, who first went into hiding in the southern Philippines in 2003. The US government issued the bounty on Zulkifli in 2007, making him one of the US’s most wanted men.
After the initial declaration of his death in 2012, the Malaysian government expressed its doubts on the veracity of the news, but was rebutted by the Philippine military’s insistence, The Malay Mail Online reports.
Yesterday, however, Zagala backtracked on the announcement, and said the Philippine military never said Zulkifli had definitely been killed.
“There were reports that said he was dead but it was never validated… we never confirmed he was dead,” he told AFP.
Zagala declined to answer further questions on the matter.
Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah have been conducting Muslim fundamentalist armed attacks and acts of terror throughout Southeast Asia.
Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in the Philippines, including the bombing of a ferry that killed more than a hundred people. Jemaah Islamiah aims to set up an Islamic state across Southeast Asia, and is accused of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings, that killed 202 people.
Malaysian militants have been known to join these organisations, moving up their ranks, and even transferring themselves to participate in similar militant campaigns in the Middle East.
The latest reported incidents involving Malaysian militants detail their involvement with the Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant (ISIL), currently conducting insurgengy operations in northwestern Iraq and Syria. A report in the Jerusalem Post also alleges that members of Hamas, currently in power in Palestinian region of Gaza, trained in paramilitary tactics in Malaysia in 2012.
The Malaysian government has denied facilitating the military training for Hamas operatives.
See Also:
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Did Hamas operatives train for an attack on Israel in Malaysia?
Home Ministry denies Hamas operatives trained in Malaysia
Photo: Reuters
