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| Southeast Asia |
| Abu Sayyaf bomber arrested |
| 2005-08-01 |
| SECURITY forces stormed an Abu Sayyaf hideout and wounded and captured a wanted militant leader, tagged as behind the series of bombings in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday, Aug. 1. Officials said troops captured Amilhamja Ajijul alias "Alex Alvarez" after a brief firefight late Sunday in the village of Recodo, west of the city. "His capture is a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf. We will not allow terror to reign," the commander of the Army's 1st Infantry Division Major General Gabriel Habacon said. Ajijul was tagged as among those who staged the spate of bombings in Zamboanga City on October 2002 that left 11 killed, including a visiting US soldier, and wounded scores of civilians, he said. Habacon said the military pieced together intelligence information about Ajijul and until he was tracked down in his hideout in Zamboanga City. "The war on terror continues and security forces are still pursuing other Abu Sayyaf members," he said. Other reports said troops seized a fragmentation grenade in Ajijul's hideout. The military said Ajijul is a sub-leader of the Abu Sayyaf's urban terrorist group, blamed for the bombings of several shopping malls and a Catholic shrine in Zamboanga City in 2002. He was also linked to the kidnapping of a US citizen Jefrrey Craig Schilling in 2000 and dozens of mostly students and teachers in Basilan island. Security officials on Sunday linked the Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda terror network to two bombings in the southern Philippines that left four people wounded. "We have reasons to believe the Abu Sayyaf is behind these attacks. There is an ongoing operation against the terror group and the blasts could be diversionary," the commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division Maj. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala said. Police and military said four people were wounded in separate explosions Saturday in the southern Philippines. A 14-year-old student of Notre Dame school was wounded when a home-made bomb exploded in Cotabato City before noon time. It said the bomb was planted near the administrative building of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). A second bomb explosion, which occurred four hours later in Koronadal City, left three civilians wounded. The bomb, placed in a cardboard box, exploded on a motorcycle taxi parked in front of the city's main market, the military said. Police in Cotabato said it recovered parts of a shattered cellular phone, raising suspicion that it was used to trigger the explosion. "They're using cell phones as initiators to set off explosive devices. This could be part of a bigger plot to sow terror. We are in heightened alert now," said Police Inspector Joey Ampong. Security forces were pursuing a faction of the Abu Sayyaf in Maguindanao province and troops had already killed six of them since last month. Abu Sayyaf terrorists tied to al-Qaeda network had also previously used cell phones to detonate bombs in Zamboanga City. Instead of the phone ringing, it sends the power to an explosive charge and detonated it. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |