President Calls Off Search for Rebel’s Body
THE PHILIPPINES
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Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she was calling off the search for the body of rebel commander Abu Sabaya after viewing U.S. spy plane footage of last week’s gun battle in which he is believed to have been killed.
The military said the Abu Sayyaf leader fell into the sea after a naval patrol vessel rammed his boat and shot him. But searches by navy boats and fishermen in the shark-infested coastal waters have failed to come up with a body.
Arroyo said she could not show the spy plane recording of the battle publicly “because we cannot expose the details of the technological capabilities of the Americans.”
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