Philippines arrests three suspected Jemmah Islamiyah allies

Source: Manila Bulletin
MANILA, March 3, 2010 (AFP) - Three men suspected of being local allies of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant group were arrested in the Philippines Wednesday while allegedly planning a bombing attack, police and military said.

The three, Abdul Racman, Asir Joher Demalon and Mujahid Demalon, were arrested in a suburb of Manila for murder and other violent crimes committed in the southern Philippines, said Chief Superintendent Francisco Don Montenegro, the chief of the investigation division.

Detonating cords, blasting caps and hand grenades were also seized, Montenegro said.

Major General Rey Mapagu, head of military forces in Manila, said the seized objects indicated that the suspects were planning a bomb attack on "still undetermined targets."

"Available information points to the foreign terror group Jemaah Islamiyah as behind this foiled plot," Mapagu said. He refused to elaborate.

Mapagu said the three were part of an extremist group which had ties with both Abu Sayyaf, a local Muslim extremist group and Jemaah Islamiyah, which has carried out dozens of bombings in neighbouring Indonesia over the past decade.

Both the military and police linked the three men to Abdul Basit Usman, a Filipino bomb expert with ties to both the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah and for whose capture the US government has offered a million-dollar bounty.

Mapagu said Basit Usman's group had carried out numerous bombings in the southern Philippines.

News reports earlier this year said Basit Usman had been killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, but local military officials were sceptical, saying he was still believed to be in the south.

Both Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah have been linked by intelligence agencies to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for the worst terror attacks in Philippine history and have carried out numerous bombing and kidnapping attacks, mostly in the south.