Suspected al-Qaeda terrorist nabbed

Immigration authorities have arrested in Maguindanao an "Arab" missionary with suspected links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network, a senior military official reported yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Teodosio, commander of Marine forces, said the man, identified as Hasan Bakir, 55, was arrested on Tuesday in Datu Piang, Maguindanao, by teams of immigration and security forces on suspicion that he was providing funds to local Muslim rebels.

No other details were immediately released, including the man’s nationality or the circumstances of his arrest.

"He is a suspected member of the al-Qaeda," Teodosio told reporters in Zamboanga City, adding they are still checking Bakir’s links with local Muslim militants.

Bakir had been under surveillance in the South for some time and was later flown to Manila for further questioning, Teodosio said. "We will provide you with more details about the arrest after Bakir’s initial debriefing is completed."

Teodosio said follow-up operations were under way.

Datu Piang is a known territory of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which the military has suspected of links to al-Qaeda and the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.

Bakir was the fifth foreign Muslim missionary to be arrested because of alleged links to international terrorist networks.

Four Turkish missionaries at a state-funded Islamic school in nearby Cotabato City were also arrested two months ago on similar suspicion.

A military report in Manila later said under interrogation Bakir had admitted being an al-Qaeda member who visited an MILF camp three months ago.

He allegedly trained some 500 students in the camp in "Arabic, Islamic studies and bombardment," the report said, adding the suspect also identified five Egyptians and seven Indonesians as having stayed in the camp as well.

The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates embassies said they had no report of the incident.

MILF spokesmen could not be contacted for comment although the group has long maintained it has no ties to foreign terrorists.

The MILF, which has been fighting for a separate Islamic state in the south since 1978, signed a ceasefire with the government in July last year to pave the way for formal peace talks brokered by Malaysia.

The al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has been linked by Washington and Manila to a local Muslim extremist group, the Abu Sayyaf, which has engaged in kidnapping-for-ransom and bombing attacks, mostly targeting Christians and foreigners in Mindanao for over a decade.

Jemaah Islamiyah, regarded as al-Qaeda’s Southeast Asian arm, is also believed to have links with the MILF.

Mindanao has long been a hotbed of conflict between the Muslim minority, who regard the south as their ancestral homeland, and the majority Christians who dominate government and the economy in the region.

Also yesterday, Teodosio presented to the media a suspected member of the Abu Sayyaf who was arrested Monday with a cache of explosives in Sulu.

Teodosio described Alzhezar Jila, 20, as a highly trained explosives expert linked to several bombings in the south. The navy said his arrest prevented planned terrorist attacks on passenger ships in Mindanao. — Roel Parreño, Jaime Laude, AFP