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.