ZAMBOANGA CITY, 10 January 2007 — Government soldiers gunned down a senior Abu Sayyaf leader in a clash yesterday in the southern island of Jolo, military officials said.

Officials said troops killed Binang Sali, who uses the nom de guerre “Freedom,” in a firefight on a remote village called Anuling in the town of Patikul, a day after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered security forces to intensify the hunt for the terrorist group.

Maj. Eugene Batara, a regional army spokesman, said Sali had been the subject of pursuit by military intelligence backed by Scout Rangers.

“Binang Sali has been permanently neutralized,” Batara told Arab News.

Filipino troops, backed by US forces, have been running after Abu Sayyaf militants along with Jemaah Islamiyah extremists from Indonesia, in the southern island of Jolo since August.

It was unknown whether Sali was alone or with his group when he was gunned down. His demise followed the killing of six suspected militants in a gunbattle in Tawi-Tawi province, south of Jolo. Among those killed was an Indonesian militant identified as Gufran, the military said.

Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the six were believed to be trying to escape to Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah by speedboat when they were intercepted by security forces.

Arroyo, who was in Jolo on Monday, told troops keep up the pressure on the militants until the island is free of terrorist groups. Arroyo was in Jolo with US Embassy officials to inaugurate a USAID-funded road project, part of the US government’s campaign to “win the hearts and minds” of Filipino Muslims.

Military officials say Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, the Philippines’ most wanted militant, may have been killed in gunbattle with security forces in September. DNA tests are currently under way to see if a decomposing body found by government troops in December on Jolo was that of Janjalani.

But Janjalani’s brother Hector, who is in a jail in Manila, said yesterday he was confident his sibling was still alive and refused to give DNA samples for comparative analysis.

Hector Janjalani told local television station ABS-CBN that reports his brother was dead were fabricated so that a US bounty of $5 million could be collected.

“Why would I agree (to give them DNA samples) when I am certain that he is still alive?,” he said. “What could happen is that, because of the hefty reward ... they will make it appear that it is positive (the DNA test).

“Not only will they get money, but it will also earn them brownie points,” Janjalani said.

ABS-CBN said Hector had last spoken to his brother in 2000. Janjalani, believed to be 31, is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of most wanted terrorists. Tissue samples from the body have been given to an FBI team and a US Embassy spokesman said the results would be known later this month. (With a report by Reuters)