- MANILA: Philippine security forces arrested three members of a Jemaah Islamiyah-linked group in a raid in Manila, police said on Wednesday, raising concerns the wanted men were planning attacks in the capital.
Elite teams from the army and national police stormed a house in Maharlika village, home to a large Muslim community, in Manila’s southern district and caught the three while they slept, chief superintendent Francisco Montenegro told reporters.
The three men belonged to a group led by Abdulbasit Usman, who has been on the US Department of State watchlist for a series of bomb attacks on the southern island of Mindanao in 2006, Montenegro said.
In January, it was reported Usman had been killed by a missile launched by a US drone aircraft in Pakistan. Local security officials however believe Usman, a bomb expert with a $1 million price on his head, is hiding in Mindanao marshlands.