By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Philippines police expressed alarm Wednesday at the discovery of firearms, grenades, and a "large amount of methampethamine hydrochloride" during a raid in an island stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
An unnamed police investigator - who requested anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media - told the Anadolu Agency they were surprised to find an M-16 rifle, two hand grenades, two rifle grenades, several pistols and revolvers and the size of the drug haul at the house of Alkhan Jailani, who was killed during a shootout in Isabela City, the capital of Basilan province in the country's Muslim South late Tuesday.
Methampethamine hydrochloride is more commonly known worldwide as "meth," "ice," crystal meth," "shabu," and in Turkey as "kristal."
He said police investigators are checking on Jailani's links with the Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups in the region such as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
For years, Philippines officials have been gathering information about the militant group's involvement in drug trafficking, outside of its regular attempts at kidnapping and extortion to raise funds for the acquisition of firerarms, explosives and ammunition to be used in its struggle for an Islamic state.
Then leader Khaddafy Janjalani claimed in 2006 that the group was financed by Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, a brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden' - although this has never been proven. Both men are understood to have died in 2006, Janjalani''s body found after he had apparently been shot in the neck, and Khalifa killed by United States special operations forces in Madagascar.
Isabela City police chief Supt. Alberto Larubis said the raid on Jailani house was carried out on the strength of a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Leo Principe.
He said the Jailani and his cohorts engaged in a shootout with the police raiding which resulted in his death and the wounding of two special forces policemen.
DXNO Radion Station manager Richard Falcatan said the shootout triggered panic among residents of Isabela City who thought they were under attack from the rebel group Tuesday night.
The scene of the shootout was just some 500 meters from Isabela wharf - the city's main market and commercial district.
The Abu Sayyaf engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, assassinations and extortion. It is the most violent of the religious separatist groups operating in the southern Philippines, and claims to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.
It is currently holding foreign hostages in its jungle base on the island province of Sulu, including two European bird watchers, who were abducted two years ago in southern Tawi-Tawi province.
* Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun contributed to this story from Ankara.
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