March 23, 2005 Philippine Army Says Finds Bombs for Easter Attack By REUTERS
Filed at 4:42 a.m. ET MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine military said on Wednesday it arrested a suspected Muslim militant and found bombs believed to have been stashed for attacks in Manila during this week's Easter celebrations. Security forces are on full alert as tens of millions of Filipinos pray, shop and travel during one of the biggest annual holidays in the largely Roman Catholic country. The military said it had foiled ``a major plan'' by Abu Sayyaf rebels to attack the capital of 12 million people by arresting the suspect, a convert to Islam identified as Tyron Santos, in Manila's Quezon City district on Tuesday. Santos led soldiers to 10 sacks of explosives and 18 improvised bombs at an abandoned house, it said in a statement. A computer, video camera and several tapes were also seized. ``The explosives belonged to the ASG (Abu Sayyaf Group) and were intended for the Lenten season bombing,'' Lieutenant-Colonel Buenaventura Pascual, the army spokesman, told reporters. Abu Sayyaf, linked to al Qaeda and the regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), is the smallest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines but among the deadliest after a trio of blasts in mid-February and the bombing of a ferry in early 2004. The three coordinated explosions on Valentine's Day at crowded shopping malls and transport terminals in Manila and two southern cities came during an army offensive against Abu Sayyaf camps on the southwestern island of Jolo. Police have warned of fresh plots to attack Manila after Abu Sayyaf vowed revenge for comrades killed this month by security forces after a jail uprising. PLOTS FUNDED FROM INDONESIA On Tuesday, the military paraded an Indonesian suspected of being a JI bomb expert who trained Abu Sayyaf members for last month's blast in Manila's business district. The Indonesian, identified as Rohmat, said on Wednesday Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy Janjalani and Abu Solaiman gave 100,000 pesos ($1,850) to a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group, for attacks over Easter. ``I know some Abu Sayyaf so I heard that Khadaffy and Abu Solaiman want to bomb Mindanao, either (the cities of) Davao or Cagayan de Oro, and also Manila in the last week of March,'' Rohmat told reporters in the Philippine language Tagalog. ``The place was not mentioned, as long as there are lots of people. They did not say if it's a mall, terminal or what.'' Rohmat said the MILF member was trained by Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian bomb-maker for JI who was killed at a checkpoint on the southern island of Mindanao in 2003 after escaping from national police headquarters in Manila. Rohmat said money for the attacks was coming from Indonesia and being arranged by Usman -- an Indonesian previously named by Philippine security forces as the leader of the JI cell in the south of the country. The MILF, due to resume peace talks hosted by Malaysia, insists it has cut all ties with foreign militants and has shunned calls from Abu Sayyaf leaders to rejoin the fight for an Islamic state in the southern Philippines. But security analysts say links between members of JI, Abu Sayyaf and the MILF can be informal and personal. JI is blamed for several attacks in the region, including the Bali bombings in October 2002 that killed 202 people. <http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-philippines-expl osives.html?pagewanted=print&position> http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-philippines-explo sives.html?pagewanted=print&position= [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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