Sayyaf hitman tagged in killing of policeman

JOLO, SULU — Government security identified the Abu Sayyaf urban terror group as behind the assassination of a police intelligence head, including previous liquidation of military personnel and prominent civilians here.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Aleo, anti-terror Task Force Comet chief, tagged Iting Sailani, leader of the Abu Sayyaf hit squad, as behind the murder of SPO4 Henry Elumbaring, a senior police intelligence officer last Friday.

Sailani and his brother Ahni were also tagged as prime suspects in the murder of the late Sulu Bishop Benjamin de Jesus who was gunned down last Feb. 4, 1997 in front of the Mt. Carmel Cathedral in downtown of Jolo.

Elumbaring was gunned down just outside a police camp in Barangay Asturias while buying bread in the nearby bakery.

Police guards at the nearby outpost fired at the assassin who quickly fled towards a slum village.

Aleo described Sailani as a very elusive hitman who managed to slip several attempts to arrest him by the police and military and even the vaunted and highly skilled Army’s Light Reaction Company (LRC).

"He is very elusive but we will still get him somewhere somehow," Aleo said.

The Sailani brothers were already arrested in the late 1990’s but they bolted from their cell at the Jolo Municipal Jail while awaiting trial in connection with the murder of Bishop De Jesus.

Meanwhile, intelligence operatives also advised newsmen to take extra precaution because unverified information showed that the Abu Sayyaf hit squad have included mediamen as targets.

"They believe in the possible impact once they hit members of the media," an operative who refused to be named said.