The Philippine military is claiming to have killed a senior leader of an Al Qaeda linked militant group. If it proves to be true then it will be a major boost in their fight against terrorism.
Philippine troops said they killed Albader Parad and five of his colleagues in a shoot out in jungle on the southern island of Jolo.
Abu Saayaf has been blamed for numerous kidnappings and bombings, which have caused terror and scared off international investors. There deadliest attack was on a passenger ferry in 2004 in which a bomb killed over a hundred people.
And Albader Parad has been one the key figures of the terror group for a decade and is on the State Department’s terrorist list.
He first came to public attention when he was involved in an Abu Sayyaf operation in which they abducted 20 Western tourists and Malaysian resort workers on Sipadan island near eastern Malaysia’s Sabah state in 2000.
All of them were finally released after a ransom was paid.
Parad was also the leader of a terror gang which kidnapped three members of the International Red Cross on Jolo Island in January of this year.
His threats to behead them caused public outrage and they were eventually released.
But not before the Philippine military claimed they had killed him but he then turned up on national radio the next day to deny it.
Since then Parad and his gang has been hunted by the Philippine military
If he has been killed this time then it will be a major boost in the fight against terrorism in the Philippines.