Philippines says arrests militant involved in beheading

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

MANILA, Apr 29 (Reuters) Philippine soldiers arrested a Muslim militant, suspected of taking part in the beheading of an American tourist in 2001, during a raid on rebel hideout in the south, an army general said today.

An elite team of US-trained commandos seized Abdusalih Dimah in a mountain village, Brigadier-General Raymundo Ferrer, a brigade commander on the southwestern island of Basilan, said.

''We took him by complete surprise,'' Ferrer told reporters, adding the militant was believed to have been involved in the beheading of Guillermo Sobero, am American tourist kidnapped five years ago on a resort island in western Palawan.

In May 2001, a boatload of Abu Sayyaf rebels snatched 20 tourists and workers from the Dos Palmas resort and brought them to the south, where most of them were held in the jungle for several months.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of four Muslim rebel groups in the Philippines, is suspected of links to al Qaeda and regional network Jemaah Islamiah.

It was blamed for the country's worst terror attack, the bombing of a ferry near Manila in February 2004 that killed more than 100 people.

REUTERS PG BD1441

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