Indonesian militant killed in Marawi

THE Philippine military said on Friday that it had killed an Indonesian Islamic militant allegedly involved in the 2005 beheading of three Christian schoolgirls.

Ustadz Sanusi was one of seven members of the extremist Jemaah Islamiyah group believed to have sought refuge in southern Philippines, said Capt. Alberto Caber, Philippine Army regional spokesman.

He was shot dead in Marawi City on Thursday, while fleeing a hideout that was being raided by police and military forces.

“When the troops arrived to arrest him, there was a commotion. He was chased and someone fired. It was Ustadz Sanusi who was hit. He was rushed to a hospital but he died,” Caber told Agence France-Presse.

The Indonesian embassy in Manila declined to comment on the Marawi raid.

The Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian extremist group, is blamed for a string of attacks including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort of Bali, which killed 202 people. Regional intelligence analysts claim that Sanusi played a major role in the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in the restive Indonesian town of Poso in 2005.