Posted on 01/03/2008 8:41:08 PM PST by NormsRevenge
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - Philippine troops have arrested a senior Islamic militant over the kidnap and killing of a group of tourists, including two Americans, in 2001, a military statement said Friday.
Soldiers backed by police raided a hideout of the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group in southern Margosatubig island on Thursday, the statement said.
Troops arrested Abu Sayyaf commander Tuatin Anahaly and seized a cache of weapons including a pistol that he was carrying, near the city of Zamboanga.
Anahaly has been on the run since a two-million-peso (48,700-dollar) bounty was placed on this head over his role in the abduction of three Americans and a group of Filipinos from a resort off western Palawan island.
Five of the hostages, including two of the Americans, were later killed.
Many of the Abu Sayyaf gunmen who took part in the raid have since been killed or captured, and last month 14 Abu Sayyaf members were sentenced to life in prison over the incident.
The Abu Sayyaf, set up with funds from the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, has been blamed for the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including a 2004 ferry bombing on Manila that claimed more than 100 lives.
Please..please don’t waterboard him...let’s gently get information from him with respectful conversation. /sc
JUNE 6, 2001 : (MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES : ABU SAYYAF aka ASG & BAATHIST IRAQ : IRAQI AMBASSADOR FAXES IRAQ'S MIN OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CONCERNING ABU SAYYAF KIDNAPPINGS, IRAQI REGIME'S FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF ABU SAYYAF) SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group. ------ "Saddam's Philippines Terror Connection(Yes, Saddam financially supported terrorists)," Weekly Standard ^ | 03/18/2006 | Stephen F. Hayes
Just to let you know, (my sis in law is Filipino)
...the Philippine Army is probably the most anti-communist and anti-Muslim army outside of the US. The Philippines is the ONLY CHRISTIAN nation in Asia. (dominantly 90%)
Abu Sayyaf and Al Qaeda are pretty much f****d in the Philippines.
Even Oli North interviewed them this month on why they’re successful on the WOT.
Another Hayes article on this subject:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/990ieqmb.asp
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