Jihadi Du Jour: Philippines kills senior Abu Sayyaf leader

Another on bites the dust...

Manila (dpa) - A senior leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf group was killed in a clash with government troops on a southern Philippine island, the military chief said Wednesday.

General Hermogenes Esperon said Binang Sali, chief of the Abu Sayyaf's urban terror unit, was killed late Tuesday in a brief firefight in Patikul town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.

"As the chief of the Abu Sayyaf urban terror group, Sali was largely responsible for the bombings in Jolo," he said in a statement.

Esperon said troops recovered the rebel's body and a pistol after the firefight.

"His neutralization translates to one bomber less that could carry out an attack on any target during the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit," he added.

Major Eugene Batara, a regional military spokesman, said government troops have been trailing Sali for several weeks until soldiers finally caught up with his group on Tuesday.

"Our troops did not suffer any casualty in the brief clash," he said. "Sali's men immediately withdrew under cover of darkness."

Batara said soldiers in the area were not able to determine if there were any more casualties in the rebels' side.

The military and police were placed on red alert on Wednesday, two days before leaders from 16 countries were scheduled to start arriving in Cebu province, 585 kilometres south of Manila, for the ASEAN and East Asian summits.