Abu Sayyaf recruits trained by RI militants

Abu Sayyaf recruits trained by RI militants

Jim Gomez, Associated Press, Manila

Indonesian militants taught dozens of Abu Sayyaf recruits how to make cellphone-triggered bombs and other terror skills while dodging helicopters and troops in a jungle camp last year, a former hostage has told The Associated Press.

Eyewitness accounts by Rolando Ulah, 44, and other Filipino ex-hostages interviewed this week provide a glimpse into clandestine terror training by suspected Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militants - and into their links to Filipino rebels in the southern Philippines, home to this predominantly Roman Catholic nation's Muslim minority.

Philippine authorities have long suspected links between JI - blamed for numerous bomb attacks and plots across Southeast Asia - and the brutal Abu Sayyaf, as well as the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a Moro separatist group accused of offering sanctuary and training grounds to JI and other foreign militants.

Jamaah Islamiyah seeks to establish a hardline Islamic state across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the southern Philippines.

The Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnapping for ransom, has been blamed for numerous bombings in the Philippines.

About 40 men completed the bomb-making course, and 60 were taught sniping and combat techniques from late 2002 to the mid- 2003 by two unidentified Indonesians, whom officials believed were JI members, Ulah told the AP.

"They were taught sniping, combat, taekwondo and dismantling bombs and making bombs that could be set off using cell phones and alarm clocks," said Ulah, who escaped from the Abu Sayyaf last June after more than three years of jungle captivity on southern Jolo island.

Training started with a dawn jog and was capped at night by prayers led by the Indonesians, Ulah said.

The Indonesians taught the young guerrillas - mostly recruits from Jolo and nearby Basilan island - how to safely open mortar rounds or unexploded bombs dropped by Philippine air force planes and picked up by villagers, who sold them to the rebels.

The bombs were set off in jungle tests, he said.

The recruits were taught to use locally available M16 and M14 rifles, as well as the grenade-firing M203, aiming at targets on trees, he said. The training occasionally was disrupted by approaching troops.

"Sometimes a Sikorsky (helicopter) would fly over and everybody would run for cover to avoid being seen. After it passed, they would resume training again," Ulah said.

The training, mostly at temporary camps on Mount Buod Bagsak near Jolo's coastal Patikul town, was witnessed by three other former captives, including a sailor who escaped last year and told military interrogators the trainers were fellow Indonesians.

Abu Sayyaf chief Khaddafy Janjalani left Jolo aboard boats with the two Indonesians and about 40 of the newly trained guerrillas a month before he escaped in June, Ulah said. The military, sometimes helped by U.S. surveillance planes, has been hunting Janjalani since then, officials said.

Former hostages said they saw two Arab nationals who met Janjalani and stayed with the guerrillas for about a month in 2001 on Basilan, where the rebels had a strong presence until they were crippled and displaced by U.S.-backed assaults.

Ulah and four other hostages surfaced on Monday to identify some of six alleged Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who reportedly were planning Madrid-style bombings in Manila. They sat down with the AP for an interview.

Ulah was kidnapped in April 2000 with 20 Western tourists and Asian workers from Malaysia's Sipadan resort, where he was a handyman. The other hostages were ransomed off. Ulah, now under a government witness protection program, said he was helping the government prosecute the guerrillas so they wouldn't be able to destroy innocent people's lives.