RP forces arrest six JI suspects

RP forces arrest six JI suspects

PHILIPPINES: Philippine security forces said on Tuesday they had
foiled a plot by an Al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror group
to bomb ceremonies marking President Gloria Arroyo's
inauguration.

Counterterrorist police units swooped down on an eastern
Manila Muslim community before dawn, detaining six men and
seizing five kilograms of explosives, Manila police Chief
Superintendent Pedro Bulaong said.

He said the men -- a cell of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror
network -- planned to plant explosive devices at Manila's Rizal
Park, also known as Luneta, where Arroyo was to make a pre-
inauguration speech on Wednesday.

She will be sworn in later in the day in the central city of
Cebu as the country's 15th president after winning May 10
elections.

"We received information that they would be planting these
bombs in the vicinity of Luneta," Bulaong said. -- AFP