November 14, 2002, Associated Press, Police arrest suspect who planned to bomb embassies and other targets in Philippines, by Oliver Teves

November 14, 2002, Associated Press, Police arrest suspect who planned to bomb embassies and other targets in Philippines, by Oliver Teves

Dateline: MANILA, Philippines Police have captured a leader of an al-Qaida-linked militant group that planned to use trucks laden with explosives to bomb the Manila stock exchange, shopping malls and foreign embassies, the Philippines government said Thursday.

Abdulmukim Edris, the alleged head of the Abu Sayyaf's explosives team, told police the group had planned to use cellular telephones to detonate the ammonium nitrate-made bombs beginning this month, military Chief of Staff Gen. Benjamin Defensor said.

Edris, who has been accused in a string of deadly bombings in the southern Philippines, was captured Tuesday in suburban Pasay city, Defensor said.

"We have information on what they are planning to do and we have given the warning to possible targets," Defensor said as Edris was paraded before the media and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday.

Two soldiers flanked the handcuffed suspect as he stood head bowed behind Arroyo, who held up a picture of a truck bomb that Edris had drawn.

Defensor said Edris was "implicated by his own cohorts" in at least four bombings in southern Zamboanga city last month that killed 12 people, including an American Green Beret commando, and injured more than 200 others.

The bombs exploded outside a restaurant near a military camp, at the entrance to a Catholic shrine and inside department stores in Zamboanga.

Edris admitted his team already conducted "casing operations and prepared plans" to bomb the U.S. Embassy and other targets in metropolitan Manila "starting November 2002 onwards," the Philippine National Police said in a statement.

Defensor said Edris received training from two Yemenis in making vehicle bombs using cellular telephones and digital clocks at an Abu Sayyaf camp on southern Basilan island last year.

During his interrogation, Edris described the two Yemenis as "VIPs" or very important persons "from al-Qaida," a police intelligence officer said on condition he not be identified.

Police also said the Abu Sayyaf group sent an emissary to seek financial support for terrorist attacks in the Philippines from al-Qaida operatives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July 2001.

"The al-Qaida operatives agreed to provide financial support and technical expertise to the (Abu Sayyaf group) provided it shed off its bandit image and focus on conducting attacks against the local and foreign enemies of Islam in the country," the police statement said.

It said that three weeks before Sept. 11, 2001, two al-Qaida operatives arrived on Basilan island and conducted a monthlong "special explosives training" session attended by Edris and several other Abu Sayyaf members.

Defensor said Edris, who carries a 1 million peso reward on his head (about US$18,800), also was the "mastermind" in the bombing of a food court in Zamboanga in October last year, killing six people and injuring 50 others.

He also allegedly participated in the raid on the Dos Palmas resort in May last year in which the Abu Sayyaf seized three Americans and 17 Filipinos at the start of a yearlong kidnapping spree in which more than 100 people were eventually abducted.

Edris faces murder and kidnapping charges.

On Wednesday, troops on Basilan clashed with guerrillas and killed Alegari Asgari, an aide to senior Abu Sayyaf commander Hamsiraji Salih, who is wanted in connection with the Dos Palmas raid, said Basilan army commander Col. Bonifacio Ramos.