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Monday, March 13, 2006
Top Sayyaf leader captured in Mindanao town
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Security forces captured Sunday a senior commander of the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, blamed for the killing of kidnapped US citizens and Filipino hostages in 2001 in Mindanao, officials said.
Officials said soldiers and policemen swooped down before sunrise on a terrorist hideout in the village of Facoma in Maguindanao's Parang town and captured Burham Sali, also known as Commander Abu Sanny.
The military linked Sali, who is facing a string of kidnapping and murder charges, to the killing of Kansas missionary Martin Burham and California man Guillermo Sobero and several Filipino hostages in Basilan island.
"The arrest of Sali is part of our continuing operation against the terrorists. Let this be a warning to the others that there is no escape from the long arm of the law," said Major General Agustin Dema-ala, the commander of the Army's 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao province.
Security forces raided the hideout after weeklong surveillance operations, he said. "Sali was also involved in the kidnapping of dozens of teachers and school children in Basilan in 2001. He will have to pay for all the crimes he committed," Dema-ala said.
Sali was said to have escaped a massive military operation in Basilan in 2002 and hid in central Mindanao until security forces tracked him down.
Many of those kidnapped, including Catholic priest Roel Gallardo, were tortured and beheaded, and the women raped by their captors, a military dossier on Sali's group said.
Sobero, Burham and his wife Gracia, and 17 other Filipino holiday-makers were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf group on May 2001 and brought to Basilan island.
Sobero was beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf and a year later Martin Burnham died in a US-led military rescue while his wife was wounded.
Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Hermogenes Esperon commended security forces for Sali's arrest and said government operation against the Abu Sayyaf will continue in the southern region. "There is no stopping; our operation against terrorists will continue," he said.
It was not immediately known if Sali had been in contact with other Abu Sayyaf leaders in Maguindanao or whether he had any contact with the al Qaeda terror network or Jemaah Islamiya militants, previously said to be working with local terrorists and responsible for the spate of bombings in the region and areas as far as Manila.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation last week included the leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, and his two senior lieutenants Isnilon Totoni Hapilon and Jainal Antel Sali Jr. in the Most Wanted Terrorists and Seeking Information-War on Terrorism lists.
The FBI said the terrorists are being sought for their alleged involvement in various attacks or planned attacks around the world. Hanno was suspected of taking part in the abduction of Sobero and the Burham couple.
Hanno was arrested in May 2002, but escaped from the Basilan provincial jail a year later. He was recaptured in January last year on an island off Zamboanga.
Washington has already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in rewards for the capture and killings of Abu Sayyaf members and leaders, including about US$359,600 to three men who helped locate Hamsiraji Sali, a key Abu Sayyaf commander who was killed in a clash with government troops in 2004 on Basilan island, about 15 miles south of Zamboanga City.
The Abu Sayyaf group is in the US list of terrorist organizations. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(March 13, 2006 issue)
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