ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / September 16, 2008) – Police in Zamboanga City have captured an alleged Abu Sayyaf militant implicated in the beheading of 14 soldiers in the southern Filipino island of Basilan, reports said on Tuesday.
Reports said Abdul Balahim was captured in the village of Talon-Talon over the weekend, but his arrest was not immediately made public for a still unknown reason.
Police tagged Balahim as among those who decapitated the soldiers after security forces clashed with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels on a village in Basilan’s Al-Barka town last year.
Balahim is facing a string of murder charges in Basilan Island. It was unclear how the militant was able to elude government forces in Basilan or how the police tracked him down in Zamboanga City and whether he was planning an attack here.
Local police declined to give any statement about Balahim.
The Abu Sayyaf had previously bombed civilian targets in Zamboanga City over the years and continued its terror campaign elsewhere. Philippine authorities have linked the Abu Sayyaf to both the Saudi’s Al-Qaeda terror network and the Indonesian militant Jemaah Islamiya, blamed for the past bombings in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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