SE Asia's 'most wanted' terrorist reported killed in southern Philippines

Reports are emerging that Southeast Asia’s most-wanted terrorist, Zulkifli Hir, also known as Marwan, may have been cornered and killed in a gun battle in southern Philippines.

The Philippines Daily Inquirer, quoting Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) commanders, reported that Marwan and another terrorist Basit Usman may have been killed in a clash with troops near Cotabato on Sunday evening.

Nigeria had shown interest in buying surplus Bell AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters that were phased out of service by the Israeli air force in 2013, as well as in Israeli-produced unmanned air systems.

Negotiations had been started, but Israel’s defence ministry ordered them to stop following a request by Washington, says a source familiar with the process. The US administration probably does not want to be involved in any way in the domestic war in Nigeria between the nation’s army and Boko Haram militants, the source adds.

Israeli sources say Nigeria had also wanted to purchase more Israeli-made UAS. The country in 2006 purchased a number of Aerostar vehicles made by Aeronautics Defense Systems.

The Israeli defence ministry declines to make a statement on the matter, noting: “We never comment on the export of Israeli-made weapon systems.”

Flightglobal's Ascend Fleets database records the Israeli air force as having 37 E, F and S model AH-1s in storage.

As the season for wheat planting in Iraq wound down early last month, farmers in areas under the control of Sunni militant group Islamic State grew worried.

More than two dozen farmers told Reuters they had not planted the normal amount of seed, because they could not access their land, did not have the proper fertilizers or adequate fuel, or because they had no guarantees that Islamic State would buy their crop as Baghdad normally does.

Farmers, and Iraqi and United Nations' officials, now fear a drastically reduced crop this spring. That could leave hundreds of thousands of Iraqis hungry. But another big loser would be Islamic State, which controls territory that normally produces as much as 40 percent of Iraq's wheat crop.

Islamic State's attempts to help farmers seem to have backfired.

Several farmers reached by phone in areas controlled by the group said they had rejected subsidized seeds offered to them by the militants. "We don't want any help from them," said Saidullah Fathi, a farmer from Surnaj al-Kobra, southeast of Mosul.

Others said the seeds came from wheat stolen by the militants and called it "haram", or forbidden.

While Iraqi farmers have long complained of Baghdad's neglect and mismanagement, one Sunni wheat farmer, speaking through a crackling phone line from Sharqat, said life under the militants and government rule was like "the difference between night and day." He receives only a few hours of electricity a day, and needs to buy fertilizer on the black market at exorbitant prices.

Many farmers feel caught in a conflict that could last for years. "We can't go back home and feel secure on the land. I can't convince my relatives to come back," said farmer Sherzaid Sadradein, a Kurd now living in a house in Arbil. "In our village, only one person (of 19 farmers) is planting, just as a shot in the dark. In the past, during the worst days under Saddam, we were only able to plant 10 percent. Now that 10 percent has been reduced to one percent."

Farmers who have managed to plant worry that Islamic State will not offer them the government price come harvest time. Depending on the quality of the wheat, Baghdad normally pays farmers up to 750,000 Iraqi dinars ($650) per tonne, more than double the price it pays for imported wheat.

Baraa Mohamed Salih, agriculture adviser to the governor of Salahadeen, the country's top wheat-producing province in recent years, said Baghdad had decided not to deliver subsidized seeds, fertilizer, or fuel to government-held parts of Nineveh and Salahadeen this year because it fears it would end up helping the militants.

The FAO has distributed seeds and fertilizer to needy farmers in the north but is also concerned such moves will play into Islamic State's hands."We have avoided areas that will not be secure during growing season," said Alfredo Impiglia, senior emergency coordinator for FAO's Iraq operation."We try not to serve Islamic State." He says it is impossible to measure planting in Islamic State-held areas. "There will be decreased planting for sure," said Impiglia. "How much we cannot say."

An estimated 2.8 million people in Iraq currently need food assistance, said Jane Pearce, head of the World Food Programme's Iraq office.

In a rented house in Arbil packed with members of his extended family, Ali Ibrahim Awadh, a tribesman from the Sunni Jabour group, pondered the fate of his farmland, livestock, fruit and date groves. His town of Hajaj was the site of early fighting, in part because it is home to many members of the army and police. Hundreds of members of his tribe have fled.

"In the beginning, people liked Islamic State because they had been suffering," said Awadh. "We too wanted change, but not in this destructive way. We see now that they are criminals, gangsters, destroyers."