Philippine troops arrest leader of Abu Sayyaf group
Philippine troops arrest leader of Abu Sayyaf group
MANILA (Agencies): Philippine troops have arrested a senior officer of the Abu Sayyaf, the Muslim rebel group holding U.S. and Filipino hostages in the south of the country, government officials said on Monday.
The military presented at a news conference a handcuffed Nadzmi Sabdulla, alias Commander Global, or Al Shariff, who they said was arrested on Sunday with three other Abu Sayyaf members in the southern city of General Santos.
"The capture of Commander Global...is a great setback for the ASG (Abu Sayyaf) group," army chief Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos told a news conference.
"I think with this capture, we expect to get further information on their operations," he said.
The 40-year old Sabdulla, who bowed his head throughout the news conference carried live on national television, is the highest-ranking Abu Sayyaf member ever arrested.
Sabdulla's faction is different from the group which abducted 17 Filipinos and three Americans from a tourist resort off Palawan island on May 27 and took them to Basilan island.
The gunmen have freed most of their captives, after payment of ransoms, but took more Filipino hostages on Basilan. They have also beheaded four of their Filipino captives and claim to have beheaded one of the American tourists.
Planner
Military officers described Sabdulla as the brains of the Abu Sayyaf group.
"He plans everything for the Abu Sayyaf. The other commanders of the group are executioners of his plan," Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, spokesman of the military in the southern Philippines, told reporters in Zamboanga City.
Sabdulla was one of the commanders on Jolo island involved in the abduction last year of 21 people, including several Western tourists, from a Malaysian resort, a police report said.
Police said Sabdulla acted as spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf during negotiations with the government under then president Joseph Estrada. Most of the tourists were released after ransoms of up to $1 million each were paid. Some of them escaped.
On May 27, an Abu Sayyaf faction raided a beach resort off the western province of Palawan and snatched 20 hostages, including three Americans. Two Americans and 19 Filipinos, including those from other abductions remain in the rebels' hands in the southern island of Basilan.
Armed forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said Sabdulla could have been plotting to stage bombings in General Santos to divert military attention from Basilan, where four Filipino captives have been beheaded and 13 freed after allegedly paying ransoms.
"We are interrogating him now about their widening operation," Adan said.
An official police report in Manila identified the other suspects as Saltima Salih, Halik Sabdani and a certain Javier Sampang alias Abu Kahir, all from Jolo.
Adan said Sabdulla's group was involved in a foiled attempt on May 22 to abduct tourists from the Pearl Farm beach resort on southern Samal Island.
Reward
Manila has offered a five million peso ($94,340) reward for information leading to the arrest of Abu Sayyaf commanders, including Sabdulla, and one million pesos for each member.
Adan said the informant who tipped government troops off to the whereabouts of Sabdulla stood to get a five million pesos reward.
"We see it as another indication that the Abu Sayyaf network is being gradually, but surely dismantled. In fact, we see that we're turning the corner now in the fight against the Abu Sayyaf," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters.
The Abu Sayyaf, with an estimated force of about 1,000, is one of two groups demanding a Muslim homeland in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines. But it does little to fight for its professed goals and appears to concentrate on kidnapping.