Philippines says arrests Muslim militant in south

MANILA, Nov 13 (Reuters) The capture of a suspected Muslim militant in the Philippines may have averted attacks on mainly Roman Catholic cities on the southern island of Mindanao, police officials said today.

Blah Platon, a Filipino also known as Datu Demaatol Guilal, was caught at dawn today at a security checkpoint outside Tacurong, one of five southern cities hit last month by blasts that killed seven people and wounded more than 30.

''We believe we foiled another bomb attack,'' said German Doria, police chief of the southern region of Mindanao, adding investigators were trying to determine the exact targets.

In nearby Cotabato City, one person was wounded when armed men fired mortar rounds at an area near a compound housing the offices of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Lieutenant-Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, an army spokesman, said the ARMM governor, Zaldy Ampatuan, was delivering a speech at the opening of a regional legislative assembly when two 60mm mortar shells landed about 150 metres (yards) from the hall.

Soldiers and police officers rushed to the area from where the shelling had come but the attackers had fled.

Willie Dangane, a police intelligence officer on Mindanao, said Platon was carrying a bag with materials to make improvised bombs, including blasting caps, electrical cord and a 105mm howitzer projectile.

''We also have standing warrants of arrest against Platon for his involvement in several bomb attacks and kidnap-for-ransom incidents in Tacurong and nearby areas,'' Dangane added.

On October 10, a bomb made from 60mm mortar rounds ripped through a market in Tacurong, wounding four people.

About 12 hours later, a similar bomb went off during a religious festival in nearby Makilala town, killing at least seven people and wounding nearly 30.

Some police and army commanders have suggested the attacks could be in retaliation for offensives against Abu Sayyaf rebels and Indonesian militants on Jolo since August.

Abu Sayyaf, the smallest and most violent of four Muslim rebel groups in the Philippines, was blamed for the worst attack in the country, the 2004 bombing of a ferry near Manila that killed more than 100 people.

REUTERS PDM KP1547