Monday, March 14, 2011

Police capture Sayyaf militant in 2001 Basilan raid


BASILAN, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 14, 2011) – Philippine police arrested an Abu Sayyaf militant linked to an attack in the southern province of Basilan almost a decade ago, officials told the Mindanao Examiner on Monday.

Officials said the militant, Nawaf Jainuddin, was arrested before dawn Sunday in a raid on the house of a former mayor in Lamitan, Hadjarun Jamiri, who was also accused in the 2007 bomb attack on Congress in Manila that killed Basilan congressman Wahab Akbar and several others.

Police also recovered two shotguns and a fragmentation grenade in the house. The raid was a joint operation between the Special Action Force and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said Senior Inspector Edwin Placio, the head of the local police force said.

“Nawaf Jainuddin is involved in the siege of Lamitan in 2001 and other criminalities in the province. He is undergoing tactical interrogation,” Placio said. “The operation against the Abu Sayyaf is going on.”

Abu Sayyaf rebels raided the Jose Torres Memorial Hospital and the Saint Peter’s Church in Lamitan in June 2001 after raiding the posh Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province where they kidnapped more than a dozen Filipino and American holidaymakers.

One of the foreigners, Guillermo Sobero, was later beheaded in Basilan after the rebels escaped a military assault on the hospital. The rebels also took more hostages in Lamitan and killed more than a dozen people during their escape. (Mindanao Examiner)

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