Abu Leader Betrayed?
Abu Sayyaf commander Umbra Jumdail had deviated from the brutal image of his al-Qaida-linked militant group by playing doctor to poor Filipino villagers, whose backing he needed to stay safe from military troops. But those villagers may have been used by the military to finally track him down last week.
A US-backed airstrike killed Jumdail, his son, and several other militants while they slept in huts Thursday near Parang town in Sulu, Jolo, dealing the latest blow to the Abu Sayyaf and depriving it of a key leader.
Surviving militants suspect that villagers secretly working for the military helped track down Jumdail, said a military intelligence official who had been helping monitor the militants. The official said militants believe villagers pretending to seek medical treatment traveled to Jumdail’s hideout and left some kind of sensor that the military used to target his Abu Sayyaf lair.
While surrounded by militants notorious for beheading hostages, Jumdail had ingratiated himself to many villagers by providing treatment for tropical maladies. He performed jungle surgery to wounded combatants, earning the rebel alias “Dr. Abu Pula.”
Rep. Lady Ann Sahidulla, who negotiated for the release of three Red Cross aid workers taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf gunmen in 2009, said she saw Jumdail treating ill villagers with herbs in an Abu Sayyaf jungle encampment. “Doc Abu was kind, but then why didn’t he say no to their atrocities?” she said.
By JIM GOMEZ (Associated Press)
mb.com.ph
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