ABU SAYANORA:

Philippine military verifying reported death of Abu Sayyaf leader (AFP, 20 December 2004)

Philippine authorities are seeking to verify an intelligence report that the leader of the Al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group has been killed in an air raid, a military official said on Monday.

One of the military’s “informants” had claimed Khadaffy Janjalani’s “body was severed (cut in half)” last month during an air strike on a rebel hideout in marshlands near the town of Datu Piang on southern Mindanao island, said Colonel Jerry Jalandoni, army chief in the area.

He said the air raid took place on November 19, reportedly when Janjalani was meeting with members of regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, he said.

“They were supposedly having a meeting with the JI (group) involved in the Bali bombing in 2002,” Jalandoni said, referring to the attack in the Indonesian island resort that killed 202 people.

The Bali bombing was blamed on JI, the alleged Southeast Asian arm of the Al Qaeda.