ZAMBOANGA CITY, 15 August 2003 — President Arroyo yesterday rewarded army soldiers for the capture and killing of a suspected Abu Sayyaf extremist who escaped with Indonesian terror-bomber Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi from a Manila jail last month.
During an inspection of troops in the southern province of Maguindanao, the president pinned medals on the soldiers and told them to intensify the hunt for Al-Ghozi, who had confessed taking part in the deadly bomb attacks in metropolitan Manila on Dec. 30, 2000.
Al-Ghozi, who had earlier been sentenced by a local court to more than 12 years in prison for illegal possession of explosives, escaped with Abu Sayyaf militant Abdulmukim Edris and another man on July 13 from a jail in Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in suburban Quezon City.
Last weekend, troops claimed to have captured Edris and a leader of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) at a checkpoint in the province of Lanao del Norte. While leading soldiers to a supposed hideout of Al-Ghozi, the two suspects reportedly tried to grab the guns of their escorts, prompting the soldiers to gun them down.
There were suggestions that Edriss and his companion were victims of a summary execution but the military strongly denied this.
The military has accused MILF fighters of hiding Al-Ghozi , a charge the separatist group has dismissed as preposterous.
On the eve of President Arroyo’s visit to Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao province on Wednesday, troops from the army’s 37th Infantry Battalion clashed with gunmen in the village where security forces were tracking down Al-Ghozi.
The gunmen retreated after a brief firefight, but pursuing soldiers have recovered rocket-propelled grenade launchers and ammunition left behind by the armed group, the military said.
The military did not say if the gunmen were MILF rebels, but the province is a known stronghold of the secessionist group tied to Jemaah Islamiya, of which Al-Ghozi belongs.
Rocket-propelled grenades are common weapons issued to MILF forces in the southern Philippines.
