Philippines says Islamist militant was killed by followers

The Philippines' most wanted Islamist militant, whose death at the weekend could boost peace efforts in the country's south, was killed by his own bodyguards in pursuit of a bounty offered by the United States, the head of the military said on May 4.

Abdul Basit Usman, a militant with strong al Qaeda links who was blamed for numerous bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, had been hunted by security forces since 2002. 

"There was in-fighting among his group," General Gregorio Pio Catapang told journalists at the main army base in Manila. "Reports reaching this headquarters revealed that Usman and five of his unidentified cohorts were killed in a shoot-out allegedly with fellow members of his group." 

Catapang said he had information that Usman's followers had turned on him because of a $1 million bounty offered by the U.S. State Department, without elaborating. 

But his account was contradicted by the country's largest Muslim rebel group, which said its fighters killed the renegade Usman. 

In March 2014, the Philippines signed a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ending about 45 years of conflict that has killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million. 

But the rebels will not lay down weapons until after a final peace deal is reached. They are waiting for Manila to set up a new Muslim autonomous government in the south, granting wider powers over its economy, politics and social life. 

Catapang said Usman was travelling with seven bodyguards towards a rebel camp in Guindulungan town, on the southern island of Mindanao, when a firefight erupted within his group. 

"The bodies were discovered by Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels," he said, adding army and police units...