ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 August 2005 — Security forces stormed an Abu Sayyaf hideout and captured a wanted militant leader tagged as the brains behind a series of bombings in the southern Philippines, officials have said. Troops shot and wounded Alex Kahal, alias Alex Alvarez, after a brief firefight late Sunday in the village of Recodo.
“His capture is a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf. We will not allow terror to reign,” the commander of the army’s 1st Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, told the Arab News.
Kahal was tagged as among those who staged the bombings in Zamboanga City in October 2002, killing 11 people, including a visiting US soldier, and injuring many civilians.
Habacon said the military pieced together intelligence information about Kahal until he was tracked down in his hideout. Kahal was also linked to the kidnapping of a US citizen Jefrrey Craig Schilling in 2000 and dozens of mostly students and teachers in Basilan island.
