By DPA
Zamboanga City (Philippines) : A commander of the Abu Sayyaf Group, one of the Islamic militant outfits in the Philippines, and a suspected bomber were arrested in separate operations in the southern Philippines, police and military officials said Friday.
Major Eugene Batarra, a regional military spokesman, said Tuatin Anahalul, an Abu Sayyaf commander, was arrested Thursday at his hideout on Igat Island in Zamboanga del Sur province, 825 km south of capital Manila.
Batarra said the suspect was involved in the kidnapping of 21 people, including three Americans, in the western island resort of Palawan in May 2001.
Anahalul, who has a $48,780 (2-million-peso) reward for his capture, had a .45 calibre pistol at the time of his arrest.
In Maguindanao province, some 930 km south of Manila, police arrested Tony Nur, a suspected terrorist bomber, while confined at a hospital in Buluan town Thursday.
The 39-year-old Nur, who has two separate arrest warrants for bombings in nearby Kidapawan City and Makilala town, was being treated for injuries he suffered after he was sideswiped by a vehicle owned by the province’s vice governor.
The suspect is allegedly a member of the Al Khobar group, a notorious extortionist gang with close links to the Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines.