Military 'close to capturing Al Ghozi'

Philippine security officials yesterday said they were close to re-arresting escaped Inodnesian militant Fathur Rohman Al Ghozi, adding they had received vital information from Omar Opik Lasal, the Abu Sayyaf member who had escaped with him from a cell in Quezon City on July 14, and who was recaptured on Wednesday.

"We will get Al Ghozi sooner or later. We were tracking him down when we chanced upon Lasal in Kamangan village, Domalinao, Zamboanga Peninsula," said Colonel Roland Rodriguez, head of a government task force who was sent to the south to recapture the fugitives. Their escape had embarrassed the government in its efforts in fighting terrorism.

Al Ghozi's refuge is becoming "thinner and thinner," said Rodriguez. "We've zeroed in on the Baganian Peninsula in Zamboanga del Sur (province) and in at least four coastal towns in the nearby Zamboanga Sibugay province as probable hiding places of Al Ghozi."

Vice chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia, said: "Our intelligence indicates that he (Al Ghozi) is still in the area."

The US has been pressuring Manila to recapture Al Ghozi before the visit of US President George W. Bush to Manila on October 18. The US has been helping Filipino soldiers to capture Abu Sayyaf members, and track down members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, the alleged Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida network.

Narrating how Lasal was captured, Rodriguez told reporters at a news briefing in Southern Command in Zamboanga City: "Troops nabbed Lasal and his companion Muktar Sali inside a commuter van at a military checkpoint in Dumalinao town in Zamboanga del Sur province."

"We got them after security forces blocked a road where their van was passing. He did not resist arrest when soldiers arrested him," said Rodriguez, adding that government soldiers received a tip-off from government informers.

Troops seized a .45-caliber automatic pistol from Lasal. Eleven other passengers, six of them women, were in the van and were briefly interrogated before they were released, Rodriguez said.

"Lasal hid from in different places in central and western Mindanao to evade pursuing troops. He admitted having hidden in Lanao del Norte province and in several towns in Zamboanga del Sur," said Rodriguez. Lasal had a P 4-million ($72,727) bounty for his arrest.

Apart from Lasal and Al-Ghozi, Abdulmukim Edris, also an Abu Sayyaf member, escaped from his detention cell in Quezon City's Camp Crame on July 14.

On August 8, soldiers killed Edris, shortly after he was recaptured together with Mahmood Ismael, an alleged member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), at an army checkpoint in Sultan Naga Dimaporo town in Lanao del Norte province.

At that time, Edris reportedly told his captors where to find Al Ghozi.