Marwan killed? US asked to verify DNA

MANILA, Philippines - The United States has been asked to verify whether or not police elite forces were able to neutralize Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, during the bloody encounter with Moro rebels in Maguindanao last Sunday.

Apart from photographs, sources said DNA tests are underway on “one of the fingers” taken from the slain suspect for verification of his true identify.

“Only the United States has the capability to verify the DNA through its vast database,” the source told The STAR. “It might take weeks to fully determine if our elite forces really got the real Zulkifli.”

Although the police forces were unable to recover the suspect’s body, the team was able to take photographs of the person they believed to be Marwan, the high-value target being pursued by the Special Action Force (SAF).

The police also got some samples of the suspect’s hair, and “one of his fingers,” sources said.

Marwan, who belongs to terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), is included in the most wanted list of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation with a $5-million bounty on his head.

This was not the first time that law enforcers claimed to have neutralized Marwan. He was reportedly killed in a clash in Mindanao in 2012 but later turned up alive.

Establishing Marwan’s identity is essential in ensuring that the JI top operative has indeed been neutralized, especially in terms of claiming the reward, military sources said.

Only Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II have in their possession the pictures of Marwan’s alleged cadaver, sources added.

As the first batch of SAF commandos were on their way back to barracks, suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) men engaged a second team of elite forces who came as reinforcements.

That was apparently when the SAF suffered major casualties, resulting in the brutal killing of 44 elite personnel, based on the official count of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Military sources revealed yesterday that it has been the usual practice for local authorities to seek help from the US in verifying the identities of suspected international terrorists who have been either arrested or killed during encounters with the police and the military.

The same processes were conducted when authorities killed Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, operative and bomb maker of the Islamic militant group, in October 2003.

Al-Ghozi was tagged in the Rizal Day bombings in 2000, which killed 22 people. He was arrested on Jan. 15, 2002 but escaped the PNP detention center on July 14, 2003.

He was subsequently killed in a police operation in Pigcauayan, Cotabato on Oct. 12, 2003.