Free Republic

ZAMBOANGA -- Government troops have arrested an alleged Abu Sayyaf leader linked to the abduction of three American tourists in the southern Philippines, the military said Thursday. Usman Lijal and a bodyguard were detained in a raid of his hideout at a Muslim community on the outskirts of this southern city late Wednesday, said Major General Trifonio Salazar, head of the Army's First Infantry Division. The raiders also seized weapons from the house, where at least one other suspect escaped, the general told reporters. "We finally got him," Salazar said. "It's the result of a long surveillance operation that...

WASHINGTON – The United States Tuesday charged leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Filipino guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf in the kidnappings of three US nationals that led to the deaths of two of them. The federal charges against five suspected guerrilla leaders were announced by Larry Thompson, the deputy US attorney general, and built on an indictment filed by a federal grand jury in February. "The indictment charges the five named defendants with conspiracy resulting in death, hostage-taking and three counts of hostage-taking resulting in death," Thompson said. Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries from Kansas who had lived in the Philippines...