Jan 20 (Reuters) - The leader of the Philippine's fiercest Muslim militant group, suspected to have links with al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah, is dead, military chief General Hermogenes Esperon said on Saturday. Following are some facts about the group, which is on the U.S. State Department's blacklist for the abduction and murder of tourists, including three Americans, in the southern Philippines: - The Abu Sayyaf, which translates as "Bearer of the Sword", was formed in the 1990s by a charismatic Islamic preacher who had returned from Afghanistan after the armies of the former Soviet Union were driven out of the country in 1989. - The Abu Sayyaf wants an independent Islamic nation in the Philippines, aligning itself with militants who espouse a similar vision of a pan-Islamic super-state in Southeast Asia. - The founder and leader of the loosely structured group, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, was killed in December 1998 in a gunbattle with police on Basilan island and was replaced six months later by his younger brother, Khaddafy Janjalani. Another brother, Hector, has been in jail for murder and kidnapping. - Based on the Basilan and Sulu islands off Mindanao, it began with small attacks, targeting Roman Catholic churches, missionaries and nuns but soon graduated to larger-scale assaults as well as high-profile kidnapping and murder of foreigners, including a kidnapping on a Malaysian resort island in 2000. - The group was blamed for the worst terrorist attack in the Philippines when it bombed a domestic ferry near Manila Bay on February 2004, killing more than 100 people. - Since Aug. 1, about 7,000 troops have been hunting down the leaders of the Abu Sayyaf and two top Jemaah Islamiah bombers -- Dulmatin and Umar Patek -- on the southwestern island of Jolo. - Khaddafy Janjalani was believed to have died from bullet wounds to the neck during an assault by marines on a rebel hideout on Jolo between Sept. 3 and Sept. 6. His death was confirmed on Saturday. - Of the top five leaders of the Abu Sayyaf, four are now believed killed -- Janjalani; Abu Sabaya, killed in a sea battle in June 2002; Hamsiraji Sali, killed in a clash on Basilan in April 2004; and Abu Sulaiman, killed last week. - The one-armed rebel leader Radullan Sahiron is the last surviving top leader of the group. Other senior members include Basilan-based Isnilon Hapilon, who is wanted by U.S. authorities, and Jolo-based Umbra Jumdail, alias Abu Pula, and Albader Parad.
