Philippine President Benigno Aquino delivers a speech in front of the caskets of the slain members of the Special Action Force (SAF) who were killed in Sunday's clash with Muslim rebels, during a service inside a police headquarters in Taguig city, south of Manila January 30, 2015. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
MAMASAPANO, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine leader Benigno Aquino is facing his biggest political crisis over a botched operation to capture a wanted militant, amid revelations that a suspended police general who is a close friend of the president played a central role in the raid.
The risky mission to arrest Zulkifli bin Hir, an al Qaeda-linked bombmaker with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, went disastrously wrong when commandos from the Philippine police's Special Action Force (SAF) were ambushed and 44 were killed.
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