Al-Qaeda men trained MILF fighters at Abubakar

Arrested Kuwaiti terrorist Omar al-Faruq and the commander of the al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan have both conducted terrorist training of Filipino Islamists in at least two camps of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao.

Sources in the intelligence community told The STAR this was among the information gathered from the debriefing of jailed Indonesian, Rohman Fathur al-Ghozi, who was convicted by a local court for illegal possession of explosives.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Al-Ghozi admitted that he trained local Islamists — mostly MILF guerrillas — in bomb-making, weapons handling, surveillance, sabotage, and terrorist cell formation in at least two MILF camps for three years beginning in 1996.

The intelligence sources identified the camps as Abubakar in Maguindanao, which fell to government hands in mid-2000, and Camp Obaida in Sarangani.

This was the same time that al-Faruq, who was arrested in June for his role in the church bombings in Indonesia on Christmas Eve of 2000, arrived in the country to conduct training at Camp Abubakar.

Al-Faruq, who is now detained by the United States in their air base in Bagram, Afghanistan, was accompanied by a certain al-Mughira al Gaza’iri, who is believed to be the commander of an al-Qaeda training camp in Khaldan, Afghanistan, the source said.

Al-Faruq was supposedly sent to Southeast Asia by no less than Abu Zubaydah, supposedly a top associate of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is blamed by the US for the terror attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.

The source said the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also traced a cell phone number that Al-Ghozi supposedly dialed on his cell phone back to al-Faruq.

"Al-Ghozi carefully established the cell, opening bank accounts, networking and recruiting. He also learned the local language well enough that he almost passed himself off as a Filipino," the source said.

But Al-Ghozi, who admitted being the leader of the local cells of the Jemaah Islamiyah, was very selective in recruitment with potential members having to go through at least three phases before be could be sent on important missions.

The first phase included the screening of individuals, including their family backgrounds. Once they passed the first phase, they would be indoctrinated with Muslim extremist principles, based on Wahabism and the teachings of the radical 19th-century Muslim cleric Mohammed Abdul Rahid Rida.

"Theirs is not a mass organization and they start by indoctrinating members with Islam," the source said. "Many young radicals were sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Al-Ghozi admitted that he himself went through the same indoctrination by Indon Muslim cleric Abubakar Ba’asyir, who was arrested on Saturday by Indonesian authorities.

After the indoctrination, the new recruit would undergo rigorous physical and military training in the two MILF camps and in another Jemaah Islamiyah camp in southern Malaysia.

Al-Ghozi appeared to be so successful that Philippine cells became a major cog in their operations.

"The Philippine cell was a major logistics for the network responsible for acquiring explosives, guns and other equipment," the sources said.

Local officials and their counterparts in other Southeast Asian nations believe that Al-Ghozi was responsible for the purchase of firearms which were later shipped to Poso, Indonesia but Malaysian authorities intercepted the shipment at Ambon in mid-2001.