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| Sunday, 29 December 2002 |
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Philippine police hold two linked to kidnap group MANILA, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Security forces in the southern Philippines have seized explosives and arrested a husband and wife suspected of belonging to the Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, police said. The couple were nabbed on Friday in a village near Maasim town in Sarangani province on Mindanao island. Mortar shells, other explosive materials and firearms were found in the pair's possession, the police said. "The materials used for making improvised explosive devices and a backpack with Abu Ahmad markings tend to show the suspects' link to the Abu Muslim gang, the extortion arm of the Abu Sayyaf in central Mindanao," said Chief Superintendent Jose Dalumpines, head of the central Mindanao police. Abu Ahmad is the alias of an Abu Sayyaf leader suspected of hiring a squad of Muslim guerrillas that carried out bomb attacks in General Santos city in Mindanao last April, killing 16 people and injuring 62. Police said arrest warrants had previously been issued for the detained couple for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They are also suspects in four kidnap-for-ransom cases in Mindanao. The Abu Sayyaf has been linked by U.S. and Philippine intelligence agents to the al Qaeda network, prime suspects in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington last year. The group claims to be fighting for an Islamic homeland in the southern Philippines but its main activity over the past two years has been kidnapping for ransom. |
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