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

The Philippines

Jeoffrey Maitem

Published: 9:52pm, 11 Jun 2019

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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.

NBI spokesman Ferdinand Lavin said the six were suspected of involvement in kidnapping, ambushes, bomb attacks and recruitment.

Five were behind the kidnap of 50 workers from a plantation at Tam-Awan in Basilan province back in 2001, Lavin said, while the sixth detainee allegedly took part in the abduction of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sulu province’s Patikul in 2002.

Militants kill Dutch photographer in Philippines

In April police also arrested an Abu Sayyaf member working as a security guard in Metro Manila, far from the centre of unrest in the south. Aldemar Murih Saiyari was accused of kidnapping and had been employed as a guard using a fake licence.

Regional military spokesman Colonel Gerry Besana said “militants were exploiting poverty and using offers of money and scholarship grants to radicalise and recruit new members”.

The detainees presented on Tuesday were named as Azmier Maalum, Amar Assan, Musa Tahil Sampang, Jamil Ibrahim, Yong Aming, and Majuk Tahil Amil.

Swiss wildlife photographer Lorenzo Vinciguerra (centre) was kidnapped, but successfully fled in December 2014. Photo: EPA

Police said Ibrahim had lived in Malaysia’s Sabah for 26 years, and was in charge of smuggling guns and people from the state to the Philippine island of Mindanao.

“He is a reliable boat man. Their fighters were decreasing so they had to recruit more for Mindanao,” NBI spokesman Lavin said.

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Founded in the early 1990s, Abu Sayyaf has carried out a number of kidnappings, bombings and beheadings in the southern Philippines over the past decade.

The United States has blacklisted the group as a terrorist organisation. It is the smallest but considered the most brutal of several armed groups that operate in the south. Three years ago it beheaded two Canadians and a German captive after their governments refused to pay ransoms.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (centre) with the casket of a victim in a January bombing of a Catholic cathedral in Sulu province, which was carried out by Islamic militants. Photo: AP

In 2012, Horn and another animal conservationist, Lorenzo Vinciguerra, from Switzerland, were abducted by five armed men linked to Abu Sayyaf on board a pump boat in the town of Panglima Sugala in Tawi-Tawi province.

Their Filipino guide, Ivan Sarenas, escaped. Vinciguerra successfully fled in December 2014 using a jungle knife with which he killed a guard. He was later recovered by government security forces.

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Academic Ramon Beleno III, head of political science and history at Ateneo de Davao University, said reports of militants recruiting new fighters in urban centres such as Manila were worrying and could increase their capacity to launch attacks.

“This is a cause for concern since security guards are our frontline defence – at railway stations, airports and bus depots,” Beleno said. “The police need to intensify their intelligence operations.”

Abu Sayyaf has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Photo: EPA

The number of hostages currently being held by Abu Sayyaf is unclear. The military says there is none but the Philippine National Police claim two Vietnamese and four Filipinos remain unaccounted for.

The military deployed a battalion to Sulu last week in pursuit of Abu Sayyaf, bringing the number of troops in the province to more than 10,000.

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The terrorist organisation continues to be a problem for Malaysia as well, with authorities there saying the threat remains high. Police inspector general Seri Abdul Hamid Bador has said Sabah’s proximity to the Philippines leaves it vulnerable, with Sulu only a 15-minute boat ride away.

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