PHILIPPINES: Philippine military believes it has found the remains of the country's most wanted man.

The most wanted man in the Philippines, the head of a group of Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda, may have been killed in a firefight with troops some months ago, officials and a newspaper said on Thursday (December 28). Troops on the southern island of Jolo have found a decomposing body they believe could be of Khaddafy Janjalani, chief of the Abu Sayyaf group, military officials told reporters. They said forensic experts are helping the military officially identify the body. Janjalani was reportedly killed in an encounter with soldiers on September 4. The body was recovered form a makeshift grave on Wednesday (December 27) after information provided by arrested Abu Sayyaf members, a spokesman said. U.S. authorities have placed a bounty of $5 million for the capture of Janjalani for the kidnap and murder of a U.S. citizen in 2002. Janjalani is the younger brother of the Abu Sayyaf's late founder Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who was shot by police on the south-western island of Basilan in 1998. The Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility for the Philippines' worst terror attack in February 2004 when a bomb crippled a ferry near Manila, killing more than 100 people, and for co-ordinated bombings in Manila and Mindanao in February 2005 that killed 10. In the late 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf became notorious for a series of high-profile kidnaps and high ransoms paid for the freedom of Western tourists. Janjalani has been indicted by a U.S. court for the kidnap and killing of American missionary Martin Burnham in 2002, who was abducted along with his wife and held by the Abu Sayyaf for over a year. But Janjalani, who has named himself after Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, is believed to have been leading the Abu Sayyaf back to its Islamic militant roots in recent years. The group has links to Jemaah Islamiah, which is fighting for a pan-Asian Islamic state, and two Indonesians suspected of carrying out the 2002 Bali bombings are suspected to be also in hiding on Jolo. Abu Sayyaf leaders have been mostly pinned down on Jolo island in recent months, with about 6,000 soldiers hunting them down. U.S. commando teams are providing intelligence to Philippine troops on the ground. A U.S. Embassy official said tissue samples from the body had been given to an FBI team on Jolo and it would also conduct DNA tests. There was no word when a result could be expected, the official said.

ITN Source | December 28, 2006

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