‘Highly likely’ Malaysian militant was killed in Philippine raid that left 44 police dead

There is a “high likelihood” a Malaysian militant who is suspected of being behind the 2002 Bali bombings was killed in the Philippine police operation that left 44 police commandos dead, a senior official said today.

Sunday’s offensive in the southern Philippines had been against a number of “high-value targets” including fugitive Zulkifli bin Hir - who has a US$5 million bounty on his head - but turned into a bloodbath when clashes erupted between police commandos and Islamist militants.

Twelve were wounded in the battles, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told a news conference.

Roxas said a 392-member police “special action force” had been sent to the remote southern farming town of Mamasapano to arrest several top militants, including Zulkifli, who is also known as Marwan.

“There is a high likelihood according to the participants that Marwan was killed in the operations, but this needs confirmation,” Roxas told a news conference.

While the 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”.