Bomb expert nabbed in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Combined Army and police operatives on Tuesday arrested in Mamasapano town an ordnance expert wanted for a spate of deadly bombings in Central Mindanao in recent years.

Suspect Abi Salman, also known as Sauman Usman, is known to have links with the Jemaah Islamiya, the Asian cell of Al-Qaeda.  

Salman, who has a P1.3-million bounty on his head, was cornered at his hideout in Barangay Tuka in Mamasapano in the second district of Maguindanao.

Salman first yielded peacefully when he sensed that his house had been surrounded by uniformed policemen and soldiers, but was shot and wounded in the leg by one of the operatives that arrested him for trying to escape.

Local officials said Salman is a close relative of wanted bomber Basit Usman, who was said to have undergone training in handling and fabrication of improvised explosives in Peshawar, Pakistan and in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the early 1990s.

The group that arrested Salman showed him a warrant for his arrest issued by Judge Rogelio Narisma of the Regional Trial Court Branch 23 in Kidapawan City, where he is facing criminal cases in connection with his involvement in bomb attacks in Central Mindanao in recent years.

Chief Superintendent Noel Delos Santos, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the wounded Salman will immediately be airlifted to Manila to be detained at the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police.