2 Sayyaf suspects captured in South

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Government troops have captured two suspected Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas as part of a stepped up security measures following the discovery of a fresh rebel plot to bomb targets in the south, the military said yesterday.

Alpaker Said, 18, alias Hamid Salo was arrested after he was spotted by a former Abu Sayyaf hostage, identified only as George, in a downtown mall on Saturday.

A team of the City Police Intelligence under Senior Inspector Jess Belarga trapped and captured Said immediately after receiving the report.

Zamboanga City Police spokesman Chief Inspector Antonio Clarito said that Said, a native of Basilan, is among those involved in the mass abduction of students and teachers in Tumahubong, Sumisip, Basilan two years ago.

Clarito added that the suspect has a standing warrant of arrest on charges of kidnapping with serious illegal detention.

Government troops also arrested on Sunday another Abu Sayyaf suspect, Jul Asari Misuari, near the town of Panamao on Jolo island.

The police could not immediately confirm if Said is one of those 13 Abu Sayyaf urban terrorists whom police intelligence unit agents are hunting down following information that the group are planning bomb attacks in this city.

Two captured Abu Sayyaf guerrillas arrested on Basilan island last week confessed to authorities that the group was plotting to bomb targets in Mindanao.

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said military intelligence operatives are now conducting surveillance operations against suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels identified by the two captured guerrillas.

The bombings could be in retaliation for military offensives in the past two years, but may also be a response to the arrest of alleged terrorist mastermind Hambali, now in US custody, Lucero said. — AFP, Roel Pareño