Philippines holds three in terror probe
A key suspect in terror attacks that killed 42 people in the Philippines last year has been arrested with two associates, a senior military official in the country said today.
Abdul Manap Mentang was arrested on October 6, said Deputy Chief of Staff Lt Gen. Edilberto Adan, alleging Mentang as a bomb expert from the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and as a local contact of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Adan alleged Mentang headed a terrorist cell that set off a bomb outside Davao airport terminal in March 2003, killing 23 people including an American missionary and wounding 127 others.
He said the group was responsible for a bomb a month later outside the southern city’s busy Sasa Wharf that killed 19 and wounded 39.
Meanwhile the Philippines military said that a Filipino Muslim convert questioned in Northern Ireland early this year in connection with funds transmitted to Jemaah Islamiyah in the Philippines, had sent funds to Mentang to coincide with the Davao bombings.
