ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 July 2003 — Security forces have captured a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader implicated in the series of bombings on Mindanao Island, officials said yesterday.

Sulaiiman Dimasalang, a commander of the Bangasamoro Islamic Armed Forces, was captured Tuesday afternoon inside a shopping mall in Cotabato City, a military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said.

Lucero said the rebel was implicated in the bombings of the international airport and a pier in Davao City and is being interrogated in an undisclosed military base in central Mindanao.

The military has repeatedly tagged the MILF rebels, whose group is linked to Al-Qaeda network and Jemaah Islamiya, to the attack in Davao City International Airport on March 4 and the bombing of Sasah wharf on April 2.

The MILF was also linked to the bombing of a crowded market in the southern town of Koronadal on May 10, a week after some 200 rebels attacked Siocon town, killing more than a dozen people.

Lucero said soldiers and policemen captured Dimasalang inside the Cotabato City Arcade around 1 p.m. after intelligence operatives positively identified him.

He said the rebel, who has a string of criminal cases, tried to escape, but was overpowered by security forces. “He is one of the most notorious MILF personalities that we are pursuing and we finally got him,” he said.

Seized from the rebel were 9 identification cards, a list of phone numbers of mostly MILF personalities and a photocopy of a bank check amounting to two million pesos ($37,000) and documents, whose contents were not disclosed by the military.

The MILF has strongly denied that Dimasalang was involved in terrorism. Spokesman Eid Kabalu said the rebel leader is even helping the police in its anti-illegal drug campaign in central Mindanao.

“Dimasalang is not a terrorist and we deny all accusations against him or against the MILF,” Kabalu said.

Manila said it would reopen stalled peace talks with the MILF in an effort to end the more than three decades of hostilities in the southern Philippines.