Top Abu Sayyaf bomber captured

An alleged leader of an Abu Sayyaf urban terrorist cell operating in Manila and Zamboanga City was presented to President Gloria Arroyo yesterday, three days after he was captured by military and police intelligence agents.

Abdul Mukim Edris, who has a P1 million ($19,000) reward for his capture, was captured by intelligence agents Tuesday afternoon in Manila's south-eastern suburb of Pasay City.

"He is the top bomber, the number one bomber, of the Abu Sayyaf," Arroyo said in a speech yesterday, referring to a group linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida network.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Benjamin Defensor said the arrest of Edris was the result of six months of intelligence operations, dubbed "Operation Gideon-Alfa," and the continuing close coordination in the government intelligence community to neutralise terrorist plans and personalities.

Defensor also said that the capture of Edris had prevented a major extremist attack in Metro Manila.

He added that they had seized from him documents detailing plans for the bombing of several malls in the capital, particularly in Pasay City, as well as the Philippine Stock Exchange building.

"We have seized from him diagrams on how to make truck bombs as well as bombing targets in Metro Manila," he told reporters.

Edris has 11 arrest orders for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, triple frustrated murder and murder issued by the Regional Trial Court of Isabela on southern Basilan island.

The AFP chief said Edris was implicated as the mastermind behind the bombing of an outdoor restaurant on October 28, 2001, in Zamboanga City and the simultaneous bombings in Shoppers Plaza, Shop-O-Rama and Shoppers Centre, also in the same city, on October 17.

Edris and a person identified only as Abbas were pinpointed as those who prepared the explosive devices used in the attacks.

Defensor added that Edris had admitted that he trained for one month, together with two others, in car bomb preparation and assembly of explosive devices using mobile phones and digital clocks as activating mechanisms, by two Yemeni nationals believed to be connected with the Al Qaida and the Jemaah Islamiya cell in south-east Asia.

The Jemaah Islamiya has been implicated in the recent bomb attack in Bali, Indonesia, that killed close to 200 people, while the Al Qaida has been blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The military chief said Edris was also believed to have participated in the Dos Palmas kidnapping by the Abu Sayyaf on the western island of Palawan two years ago.

Defensor noted that based on Edris's own statements, it was Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani himself who recruited him. The military will use whatever information it can extract from Edris to hunt down other suspects, the AFP chief said.

At the news conference, Arroyo held up a sketch of a truck laden with explosives that security officials said Edris and his group planned to assemble for the bombings in Manila, home to 11 million people.

A police intelligence official said the group may have wanted to carry out the attacks in December, after the end of Ramadan.

In a related development in Basilan, government soldiers killed an aide of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader, Hamsiraji Salihin, in a clash on the southern Philippine island, officials said yesterday.

Salihin is wanted by the United States government for the kidnapping and killing of American hostages Martin Burnham last June and Guillermo Sobero last year.

Basilan army commander Col. Bonifacio Ramos said his group clashed with guerrillas before midnight in Lumbang village on the outskirts of Basilan's capital of Isabela. He said troops killed Salihin's top aide, Alegari Asgari, in a firefight.

Several gunmen who were wounded in the fighting escaped, but security forces yesterday mounted an intensified offensive against the extremist group.

"Alegari was in charge of procuring food for the rebels. He is an aide of Salihin and now he is dead. Unless the terrorists surrender peacefully, they will also suffer the same fate," Ramos said.

The U.S. government has offered a $5 million as a reward for the capture of Salihin, one of five Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted for the killing of Sobero and Burnham.

The others are Khadaffy Janjalani, Isnilon Hapilon, Abu Sulaiman and Abu Sabaya, who was killed in a sea clash off Mindanao in late June this year.