After FBI confirms Marwan’s death, MILF plans how to help gov’t get Usman

ABDUL BASIT USMAN FILE PHOTO

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The day after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed that it was indeed Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan who was killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on Jan. 25, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Chair Murad Ebrahim convened the group’s Central Committee in its base in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat town.

Ali Haron, an assistant to the MILF Central Committee secretariat, said the meeting was ongoing as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

No other details of the meeting was immediately available, but other sources said the conference had something to do with the killing of Marwan and on possible cooperation in the government hunt for his Filipino cohort Abdul Basit Usman.

Haron said MILF officials were too busy at the meeting, and that he could not get any of them to yield to a brief phone interview.

Early post-operation reports have indicated that Usman’s group engaged in firefight the SAF members that swooped down on Marwan’s hut, allowing Usman to escape the siege.

Sources also hinted at possible review of MILF’s intelligence strength to cooperate with government forces in subsequent hunt for Usman, who purportedly escaped the “Operation Wolverine” hatched by the Philippine National Police (PNP) utilizing its Special Action Force (SAF).

The FBI confirmed a match in the DNA samples taken from Marwan’s finger and that of his brother who is detained in Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp in Cuba.

Haron said he believed the MILF Central Committee would soon come up with an official statement after the meeting.

The government suffered heavy casualty in the botched “Operation Wolverine” in which 44 members of the PNP-SAF were killed.

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