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| Southeast Asia |
| Al-Qaeda financed Green Beret killing |
| 2004-05-14 |
| Police arrested a suspected Muslim militant who arranged for al-Qaida funds to finance bombings in the Philippines — including one that killed a U.S. Green Beret — a new government report said. The money bought explosives, speedboats and rifles, according to the confidential report seen Friday by The Associated Press. Khair Mundus, who was arrested last week, funneled at least $89,000 from al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia to Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani, the report said. Mundus, 40, stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1996 until last year, purportedly for an Arabic-language course, and helped seek funds from al-Qaida for the Abu Sayyaf, the report said. It said he was arrested in southern Zamboanga city but not been formally charged. The report said Mundus allegedly told interrogators he arranged the transfer of funds to Khadaffy Janjalani from 2001 to last year through local bank accounts under aliases. The money was used to buy M14 rifles and a 90mm recoilless rifle, two speedboats and explosives for bombings, it said. One bombing killed a Green Beret, Sgt. 1st Class Mark Wayne Jackson, and three Filipino civilians outside an army camp in Zamboanga on Oct. 2, 2002. Other attacks that month hit two department stores in Zamboanga, killing seven people, and a bus terminal in southern Kidapawan city, killing seven, the report said. Another Filipino militant raised money among Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia that was used to buy telescopes and a GPS device used in the 2001 abduction of 20 people from a resort, the report quoted Mundus as telling the military. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |