Arrests of six suspects with Abu Sayyaf in Philippines fuel fears over spread of militancy

Raids on terrorist hideouts result in detention of suspects linked to kidnappings, ambushes, bomb attacks and recruitment

Security forces have stepped up their presence in the restive south after the killing of a Dutch hostage last month

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Militants in the southern Philippines have pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:52pm, 11 Jun 2019Updated: 3:19pm, 12 Jun 2019

Philippine authorities have arrested six suspected militants from the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group, in a sign of how the terrorist network continues to trouble Southeast Asia even as its influence wanes in the Middle East.

Police on Tuesday said they had raided hideouts days after the killing of Dutch wildlife photographer Ewold Horn on May 31, when insurgents holding the 59-year-old hostage clashed with government security forces in the restive southern Philippines.

Horn was the first Western captive killed by Abu Sayyaf since the group executed two Canadians and a German in 2016.

The militants are notorious for abducting foreigners and have carried out several other atrocities in the region this year, including a Sulu cathedral bombing in January that left 23 dead and more than 100 injured. In July last year they detonated a car bomb at a military checkpoint in Basilan province, killing 11.

On Tuesday the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) presented six members of the group to the media – two captured in Taguig, one in Bataan, and three in the city of Zamboanga.