A Philippine army offensive against Muslim rebels on the remote south-western island of Jolo may have foiled a plan to launch bombings in the capital Manila, officials said on Friday.
Hundreds of troops, backed by United States intelligence, have been combing the hilly jungles near Indanan town to flush out members of the Abu Sayyaf group believed to be hiding with two key suspects in the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s executive secretary, Eduardo Ermita, convened the government’s anti-terrorism task force on Friday in the wake of an alleged plot in Britain to blow up US-bound passenger planes.
Ermita asked Filipinos to cooperate with the authorities at all airports, seaports and bus terminals.
”We may have pre-empted the possible launching of some terror activities here in Manila,” National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales told reporters.
”When the operations started on Jolo, there was ongoing training in explosives. They were assembling explosives there.”
Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of four Muslim rebel groups in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, is blamed for a number of deadly attacks, including the bombing of a ferry near Manila in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
After four days of air and ground assaults, soldiers and Marines overran an Abu Sayyaf jungle camp in early August and said they seized bomb-making materials and equipment.
Despite numerous offensives on Jolo, including one with 5 000 troops in 2004, Abu Sayyaf leaders and their foreign colleagues have eluded capture.
Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines have been seeking greater independence since the 1960s in a conflict that has killed more than 120 000 people and stunted development of the resource-rich area. — Reuters