Zamboanga, Philippines (ANTARA News/AFP) - Police commandos clashed with Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing one and wounding several others.

Members of the Special Action Force launched the attack in a remote village on Jolo island after intelligence reports pinpointed the whereabouts of the gunmen, provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Joseph Ramac said.

"Special Action Force commandos clashed with the Abu Sayyaf and killed Gafur Jumdail in the village of Lapa," Ramac said, adding that several other militants were also believed wounded but escaped.

The slain militant was a brother of Abu Jumdail, one of the Abu Sayyaf`s top operatives who has had a 100,000-dollar bounty put on his head by the United States.

Jumdail`s Abu Sayyaf unit was believed to be responsible for the abduction of a local television news crew in 2008, who were freed days after reportedly paying a ransom.
The group was also blamed for last year`s ambush on a police convoy in which the island`s police chief and several others died.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of Islamic militants blamed for the country`s worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing that left over 100 dead on Manila Bay in 2004.

It is also on the US government`s list of wanted foreign terrorist organisations, after two Americans seized along with a group of tourists in 2002 were killed in captivity.
(Uu.H-AK/P003)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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