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URL:
http://www.theworldjournal.com/2002/realtarget_print.htm Print Date: |
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URL:
http://www.theworldjournal.com/2002/realtarget_print.htm Print Date: |
| Aiming At the Real Target By Mars W. Mosqueda Jr., TheWorldJournal.com The US government's offer to pursue the Philippines' MILF, along with the Abu Sayyaf, was apparently prompted by reports linking the Muslim secessionist group to an al-Qaeda cell in Southeast Asia. Philippines - The war games between the Philippines and the United States, which is actually aimed at wiping out local terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, are likely to take some new twists. That is, if the Philippine government will allow it. When US President Bush reportedly offered to send additional American troops to the actual combat zones in Mindanao to go not just after the Abu Sayyaf bandits but also the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo reminded the US leader that the US soldiers' role in the campaign in southern Philippines should be limited to training the Philippine military against the Abu Sayyaf. Sources, however, said that the Philippine-US military operations in Mindanao will soon be shifting its focus on the MILF after a confessed Indonesian terrorist detained in Manila hinted at the alleged link of the secessionist group to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi , who was arrested by Philippine authority, claimed that the leader of the terror group called Jama'ah Islamiah slipped into the country in December 2000 to help plan the simultaneous bombings in Metro Manila on December 30 of that year. At least 22 people were killed and 96 injured in the attacks. Al-Ghozi said Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin (alias Hambali) is al-Qaeda's point man and operations chief in Southeast Asia. Hambali and another Malaysia-based leader of Jemaah Islamiah, Pais bin Abu Bakar Bafana, toured Metro Manila to assess the target areas after hatching the bombing plot. © March 15, 2002 |
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