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| Southeast Asia |
| Suspected terrorists arrested in Philippines tourist resort |
| 2008-03-12 |
| (Xinhua) -- Two suspected terrorists, including a foreigner, were arrested by intelligence agents on the Philippines' tourist island of Boracay in the central Aklan province, media reports said on Tuesday. The arrested suspects were named as Almizhabr Bonadial, a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah member, and Mohammad Bani Macarya suspected to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group, Philippine TV network ABS-CBN reported, citing a military source. The Indonesia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and the AbuSayyaf, a small but violent southern Philippine-based group blacklisted by Washington as a terror organization, have been blamed for a series of deadly bomb attacks, including the February2004 bombing of a ferry in Manila Bay that killed more than 100 persons. The two were arrested in operations conducted on Boracay Islandlast week, the source said. This came as Armed Forces' chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. confirmed the arrest of a Filipino who has suspected links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network. "We would like to come up with the details after we have completed the follow-up operations just to be sure that the members of their cells are already taken cared of," Esperon said. He said another suspected terrorist, who "came from another country" was also arrested Monday. The military chief said the arrests were connected to the alleged assassination plot against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a terror group's plan to bomb vital government installations in the country's capital region of Metro Manila. The Philippine National Police (PNP) had said that the assassination plot against President Arroyo was uncovered with the recovery of a document, which was written in Arabic. PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. said the document was recovered by a security guard on a parking lot of an establishment located somewhere in Metro Manila. Razon said the document detailed a terror group's plan to bomb a convoy of President Arroyo and a plot to bomb foreign embassies in Manila. |
| Posted by:Fred |