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Old 02-20-2010, 10:57 AM
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Default US embassy hails capture of Philippine militant

MANILA (AFP) – The US embassy on Saturday praised Philippine authorities for their arrest of a Filipino Muslim militant wanted for the kidnapping and murder of American tourists after nine years on the run.

"We applaud the efforts of the armed forces of the Philippines to bring terrorists to justice," embassy spokeswoman Rebecca Thompson said in a statement following the arrest of Jumadail Arad.

Arad, an alleged member of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group, was arrested Thursday while trying to enter a crowded Manila seaport where he planned to board a ferry bound for the troubled south.

The military has said that Arad was the driver of a speedboat used by the Abu Sayyaf in a 2001 raid on a Philippine island resort in which Christian missionary couple Gracia and Martin Burnham and fellow American Guillermo Sobero were kidnapped.

Sobero was beheaded as a warning to pursuing troops while Martin Burnham was killed in a raid which recovered Gracia Burnham.

Several Filipinos were also kidnapped but most either escaped or were released, allegedly after ransom payments.

Apart from kidnappings for ransom, the Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a ferry in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people in Manila Bay.

The group, which mostly operates from remote southern islands, is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations.

The group was formed in the 1990s partly with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, Philippine intelligence officials have said.

Shortly after the 2001 abductions, President Gloria Arroyo allowed US Special Forces to deploy in the southern Philippines for joint anti-terror training with local troops.

Philippine military intelligence says the Abu Sayyaf's strength has dropped to about 300-400 fighters from a high of more than 1,000 in the 1990s but it remains a threat, particularly in the Muslim-populated south of the country.
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