MANILA, July 29, (Agenies): Philippine authorities have arrested a founding member of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group blamed for some of the worst terror attacks in the region, security officials said on Sunday.
Ustadz Ahmadsali Asmad Badron, also known as Ammad or Hamad Ustadz Idris, was arrested on Saturday in the remote Tawi-Tawi islands in the southern Philippines.
Police criminal investigation regional chief Edgar Danao said Badron was one of the original members of Abu Sayyaf, which was founded in the 1990s using seed money from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“Badron was among the trusted members of (Abu Sayyaf) who made millions of pesos in ransom money collected from their operations,” Danao said.
Along with one of his cousins Badron worked alongside Galib Andang, a notorious Abu Sayyaf leader well known as “Commander Robot”.
The group carried out a daring cross-border raid on a Malaysian resort in April 2000 and kidnapped dozens of foreign tourists.
It gained Abu Sayyaf international notoriety even as the hostages were freed in batches after millions were paid following ransom negotiations brokered by Libya, officials said.
Hundreds of army soldiers have been deployed to hunt down a group of gunmen who killed 10 soldiers in a single day in ambushes and clashes on a violent southern Philippine island, officials said Sunday.
A battalion of 600 army soldiers arrived late Saturday on Basilan, where 10 soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded by dozens of gunmen who were backed by Muslim militants, military officials said. A further 600 soldiers will be sent to the island this week to help pursue the fleeing gunmen, several of whom were believed killed in Thursday’s fierce fighting in mountainous Sumisip town.
In response to the massive army deployment, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is engaged in peace talks with the government, asked military commanders to notify them of their offensives to avoid accidental clashes with its Basilan-based rebel forces.
Several armed groups have a presence in predominantly Muslim Basilan, including the 11,000-strong Moro rebel front, the smaller but more violent al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and other outlaws. Many gunmen belonging to different groups, however, have blood ties and often back each other up during clashes.
Regional army spokesman Capt Albert Caber said the assaults would target the gunmen behind Thursday’s attacks on army troops and recent deadly ambushes on workers of a vast rubber plantation in Sumisip in Basilan, about 550 miles (880 kms) south of Manila.
The flag-draped remains of the soldiers killed in Sumisip were flown to Manila Saturday and given honors by military commanders, who vowed to get justice. “There will be no peace talks with these lawless elements,” Caber said.
Officials said the gunmen involved in Thursday’s fighting were led by an outlaw, a former security officer of the Sumisip rubber plantation who has turned against it in a long-running feud. Army troops raided the outlaw’s hideout in the forested outskirts of Sumisip early Thursday, sparking clashes that killed eight soldiers and gunmen. Two more soldiers were killed when gunmen opened fire on army reinforcements.