Topic: DNA Tests Confirm Terror Leader Killed

Washington Times
January 21, 2007
Pg. 5
Philippines


MANILA -- DNA tests confirmed the death of the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terror group responsible for the beheading of a California tourist and the kidnapping of two American missionaries, officials said yesterday.
The Abu Sayyaf leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, was killed in September in fighting with U.S.-backed Philippine troops, who also killed Janjalani's possible successor in an operation on Tuesday.
The deaths of Janjalani and Abu Sulaiman, who was wanted in the abduction of the three Americans and the deaths of two of them, mark a major victory in the campaign against Islamist militants in the south of the archipelago after years of bombings and kidnappings. The FBI conducted the tests.
Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple from Wichita, Kan., and Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., were taken by Abu Sayyaf from a resort island in May 2001. Mr. Sobero was beheaded by the militants and Martin Burnham was killed during a military rescue in June 2002 in which his wife was wounded.