Rebels say Usman ‘still hiding in Mamasapano’

MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao — A wounded foreigntrained bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman is just hiding in a marshy area in Mamasapano, Maguindanao and is planning to escape to the northern part of the vast Liguasan Delta, rebel sources said on Saturday.

Usman, an ethnic Maguindanaon and an accomplice of the slain Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, was reportedly wounded in his arm when operatives of the police's Special Action Force raided their hideout in Barangay Pidsandawan here before dawn of January 25.

"Marwan was killed in that raid while Abdul Basit, who was in another house about 60 meters away, was wounded when he and his companions engaged the SAF team when they heard gunshots and saw the policemen around," a rebel, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said in the local vernacular.

Neighbors of Marwan said he was known in the municipality as "Ibz" and not by his original alias.

"People here knew him as `Ibz' and not as Marwan," another source pointed out.

Usman was more popular here as "Teng" and not as Abdul Basit, the source added.

Villagers identified with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Marwan was not buried at a graveyard near an old mosque in the center of Barangay Tukanalipao as reported by a national television network.

Clerics residing around the centuries-old mosque refuted the reports purporting they facilitated Marwan's burial in a Muslim cemetery just meters away from the worship site.

"He was buried not far from his hideout, in an unmarked grave," a driver of a passenger vehicle said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for his being related by blood with certain commanders of the MILF here, said Marwan died from gunshot wounds in the chest.

"The SAF team that raided his house was composed of about 30 men. They were able to kill him immediately. Usman and his companions fired at another group near them, precipitating an encounter," narrated the source.

"The wounded Usman managed to escape," the source said.

Barangay folks said Usman has still been hiding in a marshy area in Mamasapano, ready to leave if he would have the chance.

"He and Marwan stays in one house most of the time but that time he (Usman) slept in another house just near the house where the SAF members killed Marwan," said one of them.

An owner of a small dry goods store here said Marwan had the habit of occasionally moving around Barangay Pidsandawan and deeper into the nearby Liguasan Delta at the tri-boundary of the adjoining North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces, to avoid detection.

"We are convinced that there were people in the MILF that helped the police track him down because the raid was carried out at a time when he was in Barangay Pidsandawan," the merchant pointed out.