Manila - Six relatives of Muslim militants who abducted
three Red Cross workers in the southern Philippines were arrested for
their alleged involvement in the kidnapping and other attacks by the
rebels, a marine spokesman said Thursday.
Lieutenant Colonel Edgard Arevalo said authorities were looking
into the possibility that the arrested relatives were involved in the
bombing outside a Catholic church in Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000
kilometres south of Manila, on Tuesday.
Two people were killed and more than 30 injured in the attack.
Arevalo said the arrested relatives included two wives of Muslim
Abu Sayyaf rebel commander Albader Parad, who led the kidnapping of
three Red Cross workers on January 15.
Only one Red Cross worker - Italian Eugenio Vagni - remains in
captivity. His colleagues - Swiss Andreas Notter and Filipino Mary
Jean Lacaba - were freed separately in April.
Arevalo said Parad's wives and their four companions were arrested
on Tuesday, hours after the bombing in Jolo town, as their
motorcycles passed by a marine checkpoint in Tagbak village in
Indanan town.
He identified Parad's wives as Rowena 'Honey' Aksan and Nursima
'Simang' Annudden. The other arrested suspects were Aksan's brother,
two wives and a brother of Abu Sayyaf bomb experts.
'All the persons arrested are suspected to provide logistical and
service support in terms of vehicle, purchase and delivery of food
and similar commodities to their bandit Abu Sayyaf cohorts,' Arevalo
said.
He added that there was reason to suspect that a mobile phone
seized from the group 'could be part of the triggering mechanism that
set off the bomb that was placed in the motorcycle that exploded'
near the church on Tuesday.
The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf is the smallest but most violent
Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines. It has been blamed
for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines as well as
high-profile kidnappings involving foreign hostages.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story