Abu Sayyaf bandits have been training Muslim converts to carry out terror attacks in Manila, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Friday, as four more were arrested in an anti-terror crackdown. Ermita, who also heads an anti-terror task force, said six Abu Sayyaf suspects captured this week for plotting "Madrid-level" bomb attacks in Manila had confessed that they were recruiting Muslim converts because they would not stand out and arouse suspicion.
| There's a simple solution: kill anybody who converts. That's what the Muslims do, right? |
His announcement came as military officials in Mindanao announced Friday that four more Abu Sayyaf members had been captured including Nasser Hapilon, brother of the group's second-in-command, Isnilon Hapilon. Ermita said two other suspects had escaped in the Manila raids but stressed that intelligence agencies were continuing to hunt them down. "One important revelation is that the 'return-to-Islam' Filipinos, who were (former) Christians ... their converts, have been trained (in Mindanao) to handle explosives," Ermita said. He said these converts were chosen because "they will not be easily suspected to be terrorists", adding that the two who escaped were also members of the movement. The wife of one of the six suspected Abu Sayyaf members had said they were Muslim converts but denied they were involved in terrorism. She accused security forces of torturing her husband into confessing, a claim denied by Ermita. |