Did SAF men get their target?

MANILA, Philippines - Was the target neutralized?

Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II cannot confirm whether Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, was killed in the encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Sunday.

Roxas, however, said there were pictures and other pieces of evidence indicating Marwan was among the dead.

READ: International terrorist living in Maguindanao: Who is Marwan?

“There is a high likelihood that Marwan was killed during the operation, but we need confirmation,” Roxas told a press briefing at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters yesterday.

Roxas said a 392-member PNP Special Action Force (SAF) team had been sent to Mamasapano to arrest Marwan and other militants.

Marwan is a Malaysian bomb maker with a $5-million bounty from the US government. He was the high-value target, along with Basit Usman, of the SAF operation in Mamasapano.

While the police commandos failed to recover the body of their main target, “they were able to take pictures, and these pictures will undergo a process to determine whether it was Marwan or not.”

Roxas said he had personally seen some of the photographs, but could not “tell from these pictures whether it was Marwan or not.”

“There will be debriefing and DNA to get corroborating information from various sources to confirm the information,” Roxas said.

Roxas has formed a board of inquiry to look into “tactical matters” and get to the bottom of the incident.

Acting PNP chief Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina also supported Roxas in pointing out the process of identifying Marwan.

“We have a DNA process.We cannot say until we have completed the DNA examination,” Espina said.

A top Malaysian police official on counter-terrorism told the Malay Mail newspaper that Kuala Lumpur was still waiting for information from the Philippine authorities on Marwan’s fate.

Marwan is wanted by the US government for his involvement in the Jemaah Islamiyah group that staged the 2002 bombings in Bali that claimed 202 lives, and other deadly attacks in Southeast Asia.

Malacañang said President Aquino will address the nation today on questions over last Sunday’s incident.

At the same time, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the President has instructed Roxas and the PNP to study all options to honor the policemen killed in the Mamasapano incident, including the declaration of a national day of mourning.

Lacierda said it would now be up to the board of inquiry formed by Roxas to investigate the matter.

“There is a board of inquiry that was established precisely to look into the facts and circumstances of the Mamasapano incident,” Lacierda said.

Escaped

Sources, on the other hand, claimed Marwan was able to escape after the PNP-SAF raided his hideout in Mamasapano.

“Marwan was able to escape before police operatives raided his hideout,” a former military intelligence operative turned bounty hunter told The STAR.

Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) spokesman Emmanuel Fontanilla added Marwan was spotted in Lanao del Sur in the company of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) guerrillas.

Fontanilla said an MNLF field commander reported that Marwan was seen in a BIFF camp in Maguindanao.

“The high value target of the PNP was not in the area when the raid took place,” he added.

Fontanilla said Marwan, who is fluent in various dialects in Mindanao, has supporters in hinterland communities.

In a separate interview, the former military intelligence officer said their assets have been tracking Marwan in Manila where they were supposed to carry out a bomb attack on the papal convoy last Jan. 18 in Rizal Park.

Marwan and his three cohorts were not able to carry out their mission because of the heavy rains and the lack of cell phone signals to trigger their remote controlled bombs.

After the aborted attack on Pope Francis, Marwan returned to Maguindanao where he was almost cornered.

The source said the $5-million reward on Marwan has attracted many bounty hunters, including his group, to help the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) track down its most wanted.

The authorities have long sought Marwan and declarations of his death have proved premature in the past.

Marwan was reportedly killed in a military strike in 2012 but the reward money was not collected because his body was never found.

Authorities have alleged that some of the Bali bombers had fled to the southern Philippines and sought refuge with Muslim rebels.

 They also say the foreign militants had then trained the Abu Sayyaf extremists in manufacturing improvised explosive devices that have been used in bombings.

The source added they are coordinating with law enforcement agencies in tracking Marwan but stressed they were not involved in the bloody police operation in Mamasapano where more than 40 SAF operatives were killed by BIFF and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.

MILF chief peace negotiator Mohaquer Iqbal admitted on Monday that their guerrillas were involved in the fighting but the “unfortunate and saddening development” was due to the failure of the elite police unit to coordinate its activities with the rebel group.

The fighting erupted before dawn Sunday when three SAF platoons entered a supposedly government-recognized guerrilla enclave in Barangay Tukanalipao to arrest Marwan and Usman.

Iqbal stressed the policemen should have coordinated their operations to arrest suspected terrorists in the area with the joint ceasefire committee and the International Monitoring Team (IMT).

According to Roxas, the SAF were leaving the area where the operation was taking place when they were ambushed by the BIFF, one of the groups accused of sheltering Marwan.

The police escaped the ambush, only to stray into territory controlled by the MILF, sparking another firefight, he said.

The 10,000-strong MILF signed a peace treaty with the government in March last year.

The BIFF, a breakaway faction of several hundred Muslim rebels, was not part of the deal.

The US embassy in Manila said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) requested the assistance of US servicemen in the evacuation of casualties.

Embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer said the AFP requested American servicemen and the use of helicopters in the evacuation. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Perseus Echeminada, Aurea Calica, Pia Lee-Brago, AFP