Posted on 10/19/2003 4:50:36 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
MANILA - Militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah's No 3 leader, Taufik Rifqi, has been captured in Cotabato city on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
Security officials announced their coup just hours before US President George W. Bush arrived in Manila on Saturday for talks with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on boosting cooperation in their war against terrorism.
Taufik's group has been blamed for last year's bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and is accused of links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Taufik was apparently establishing links with other Muslim militants in Cotabato, where the military is battling rebel groups fighting for an Islamic state.
Intelligence reports suggested he was Jemaah Islamiah's second-in-command in the Philippines, a security spokesman said.
JI's top operative in the Philippines, bomb expert Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, was killed in what police said was a shootout near Cotabato less than a week ago.
His death came three months after he escaped from a police maximum-security compound in Manila.
Mr Bush praised the Philippines at the weekend as a major partner in the war on terrorism and pledged more aid to help the country fight Muslim militants.
US troops have been training Philippine soldiers in counter-terrorism measures since last year.
Meanwhile, in Manila yesterday, Brigadier-General Victor Corpus said the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines was planning attacks on civilians suspected of being informers.
Peace talks with the communists have been stalled since 2001 but both sides continue informal discussions.
The insurgents are demanding the party and its armed wing, the New People's Army, be taken off a US list of terror organisations as a condition for resuming negotiations to end more than 30 years of rebellion to establish a Marxist state.
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