Manila---A Filipino on the United States' list of most wanted "terrorists" has been killed in a firefight in the southern Philippines, Muslim rebel leaders and the military said Monday.
Abdul Basit Usman was killed in a remote mountainous area while being escorted by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the nation's biggest rebel group, its vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar said.
"We can confirm that Usman is dead and his body was buried in accordance with Muslim tradition," Jaafar told AFP, but he refused to say who killed him.
The MILF is seeking to finalise an accord, signed last year, with the government to end four decades of fighting in which about 120,000 people have died.
Security forces had been hunting Usman since he escaped from a January police raid that killed Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, an alleged bomb maker who was the subject of a $5-million US government bounty.
Usman, accused of repeated bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, was the subject of a $1-million US bounty.
The January raid, conducted in MILF territory, also led to the death of 44 police commandoes as rebels fought back, setting back efforts to finalise the peace deal.
The MILF has since then been under intense political pressure to show it is a reliable peace partner.
Jaafar said Usman was killed as MILF rebels were escorting him to the group's leaders to surrender, adding that he probably did not know he was being taken back to the MILF leaders.
"There was a firefight along the way. Usman could have sensed that he was being double-crossed," Jaafar said.
However he refused to give any more details as to who killed Usman, saying only that the circumstances of the firefight were under investigation.
AFP
