AFP captures Abu ‘bomb factory’

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The military believes it has foiled a major terrorist attack by the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf after their "bomb factory" and training facility in Sulu were captured, the Southern Command (Southcom) said yesterday.

Assassins of the Abu Sayyaf, however, have intensified their liquidation drive following the capture of the facilities, both located in Bud Kapun in Indanan town last Aug. 1.

Two policemen were killed by the terrorists in downtown Jolo, also in Sulu, last Friday.

Making matters worse, two military intelligence agents were also killed after they were mistaken by responding policemen to be the suspects, a military source said.

The source said police officers responding to the scene went after the Abu Sayyaf gunment but ended up in a shootout with two members of a military intelligence unit at about 4:45 p.m.

"It was a case of mistaken identity," said the military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said the suspects’ description matched those of the military agents.

"There was confusion on the reports because the two intelligence guys were on motorcycle who were believed to be also tracking down the assassins," the source said.

Military and police officials have sorted out the issue to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Southcom chief of staff Col. Mohammad Nur Askalani said the captured bomb factory and training facilities yielded a huge cache of high-grade explosives believed used in training and bomb making by terrorist suspects Dulmatin and Umar Patek, both alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah, as well as Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani.

Askalani said capturing the terror camp has disrupted Jemaah Islamiyah from training the Abu Sayyaf how to make bombs.

"With the discovery it is with the assumption that the group were indeed plotting for widespread bombing, maybe key areas in Mindanao," Askalani said. "The fall of the camp preempted that possible terror plot."

Dulmatin and Patek, tagged as key suspects in the deadly 2002 Bali bombing in Indonesia, and Janjalani have been holding camp in Bud Kapuk for over six months.

However, the military flushed them out with a massive offensive beginning August 1 after months of tracking them down.

Troops of the Marines Force Recon Company and the 35th Infantry Battalion seized the camp and found the cache of explosives.

According to Askalani, military intelligence has intensified operations to find out if Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf may have slipped out any bombs made in the camp.

The military has urged the public to be vigilant against any suspicious people and baggage to avert any terror attack.

Meanwhile, army and police forces rescued the remaining hostage of the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo shortly after 6 p.m. yesterday.

But Jacquelene Silbin, 53, a businesswoman, later died due to multiple stab and hack wounds she sustained from the hands of her captors, Southcom deputy chief for operations Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino.

The decapitated body of her son, Jeffrey, 28, was found earlier yesterday. The victims owned a bakery and pawnshop in Jolo and were abducted on July 27.

Four of their kidnappers were killed during a rescue operation, Dolorfino said. A police officer, Senior Police Officer 3 Bas Isad, was killed in the shootout.