- Title: PHILIPPINES: MILITARY ARREST MAN WITH SUSPECTED LINKS TO OSAMA BIN LADEN.
- Date: 26th September 2001
- Summary: (U6) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (SEPTEMBER 24, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV/PAN/CU/TILT: VARIOUS OF MOHAMMAD FAISAL DOMPOL IJAJIL, SUSPECTED ABU SAYYAF GUERRILLA BEING LED INTO CONFERENCE ROOM/ IJAJIL STANDING NEXT TO PHILIPPINE ARMY BRIGADIER GENERAL ARSENIO TECSON (2 SHOTS) 0.1 2. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILIPPINE ARMY BRIGADIER GENERAL ARSENIO
- Embargoed: 11th October 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA AND BASILAN, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVA9NJEAI48N99IAKIR1RELYW6JU
- Story Text: The Philippine military has said it has arrested a
suspected supply chief for a
local Muslim rebel group which might have links to Saudi-born
dissident Osama bin Laden.
The Philippines said Monday (September 24) that it had
arrested the man with suspected links to a local Muslim
organisation and that the military would also question him
over the group's possible ties to Saudi-born dissident Osama
bin Laden.
Philippine troops arrested Mohammed Faisal Dompol Ijajil
in central Manila last week as a murder suspect but said he
will be interrogated "on all angles" including any links with
bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden is the main suspect in the September 11
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"We have reason to believe that he heads the Manila-based
ASG (Abu Sayyaf group) cell," Brigadier-General Arsenio
Tecson, vice commander of the Philippine army, told a news
conference.
"(The Manila cell members) are particularly concerned with
the maintenance of the Manila-Basilan...material pipeline as
well as in the collection of intelligence in the metropolis,"
he added, giving no further details.
Tecson said Ijajil joined the Abu Sayyaf in 1994. The
group was founded in 1991, professing to fight for an
independent homeland in the country's mainly Muslim south but
pursuing kidnap-for-ransom as its main activity.
The group's previous demands have included releasing
suspects in the 1993 bombing attempt on the World Trade Center
in exchange for releasing its own hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf is holding 18 United States and Filipino
hostages it snatched earlier this year from a beach resort on
the western island of Palawan.
Ijajil joins more than 150 Abu Sayyaf members and
sympathisers arrested since July in crackdowns on their
stronghold, southern Basilan island.
Tecson said national police and the military were still
investigating the cell's operations in Manila.
On Sunday (September 23) the Philippine government said
that the FBI in the United States had asked to interrogate
captured Abu Sayyaf members, some of whom could face charges
in American courts.
Tecson said Ijajil was unlikely to face extradition, but
would be interrogated in the Philippines on issues including
connections abroad and possible links to bin Laden.
"Basically, at this point he's being investigated on all
angles, and (a link to bin Laden) is one of those," Tecson
said.
The Philippine military has accused the Abu Sayyaf and
other local Muslim separatists of receiving funds from
billionaire bin Laden.
Bin Laden has funded the building of mosques and schools
in the south through his brother-in-law Mohammad Jamal
Khalifa, who is married to a Filipina.
ASIA/JRC
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