PHILIPPINES: AN IRAQI DIPLOMAT EXPELLED BY THE PHILIPPINES FOR ALLEGED LINKS TO MUSLIM MILITANTS HAS FLOWN OUT OF MANILA
Record ID:
648593
PHILIPPINES: AN IRAQI DIPLOMAT EXPELLED BY THE PHILIPPINES FOR ALLEGED LINKS TO MUSLIM MILITANTS HAS FLOWN OUT OF MANILA
- Title: PHILIPPINES: AN IRAQI DIPLOMAT EXPELLED BY THE PHILIPPINES FOR ALLEGED LINKS TO MUSLIM MILITANTS HAS FLOWN OUT OF MANILA
- Date: 13th February 2003
- Summary: MANILA, PHILIPPINES (FEBRUARY 13, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. LV/SLV IRAQ EMBASSY SECOND SECRETARY HUSHAM HUSSEIN WALKING AT AIRPORT 0.15 2. SV IRAQ EMBASSY IN MANILA CHARGE D AFFAIRES SAMIR BULOS WALKING WITH CHILDREN 0.20 3. SV OF HUSSEIN FAMILY (4 SHOTS) 0.46 4. CU/SLV/SV AIRPORT SECURITY PERSONNEL (5 SHOTS) 1.11 5. SLV FACADE OF NINOY AQUINO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 1.16 6. LV/SLV PLANE PREPARING TO TAKE OFF (3 SHOTS) 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 28th February 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVA9OSD09UEVZ99VVUTLMXXDCJGU
- Story Text: An Iraqi diplomat expelled by the Philippines for
alleged links to Muslim militants has flown out of Manila
airport on a Qatar airlines flight officials said.
Husham Husain, a second secretary at the Iraqi embassy,
left on a Qatar Airways flight which took off around 11:30
p.m. (1530 GMT) for Doha.
Husain is the second Iraqi diplomat in 12 years to be
expelled by the Philippines.
The government said on Wednesday it had given Husain 48
hours to leave after an intelligence report linked him to the
Abu Sayyaf rebels, blamed for a bombing that killed a U.S.
soldier and three Filipinos in the southern city of Zamboanga
in October.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry said in Baghdad the expulsion was
part of a U.S. campaign to distort the image of Iraq and link
it to terror.
"What astonished us was the Philippines following the U.S.
campaign of disinformation, which spread allegations about the
Iraq diplomat having links to the Abu Sayyaf group," it said
in a statement.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said Husain was
expelled after an intelligence agency traced cellular phone
calls to him from Abu Sayyaf members immediately after the
bombing of a karaoke bar in Zamboanga.
In 1991, the Philippines ordered the Iraqi embassy's first
secretary to leave over alleged links to two Iraqi nationals
accused of setting off a bomb at a U.S. embassy library in
central Manila.
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