Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report today.

Today’s Winds of War briefing is brought to you by Bill Roggio of the fourth rail and evariste of Discarded Lies.

Top Topics

• JI and Abu Sayyaf, two of the deadliest Islamist terror groups in SE Asia, are teaming up in the southern Philippines. This report says that Abu Sayyaf is turning into a mega-terror group capable of carrying out a Bali.

• The US wants to help India become a major world power in the 21st century-Condi presented a plan to that effect to India’s Prime Minister. Meanwhile, the US is to sell both Pakistan and India F-16 fighters. Pakistan already has 32 operational F-16s. Actually, India’s being offered F-18s if it wants them, and technology transfer too.

• Is “Peak Oil” finally here? Most major energy companies report adding less than two thirds as much oil to their reserves than they pumped. Surplus capacity has eroded from 6 million bpd in 2002 to 1-1.5 mn bpd.

• The Individual Ready Reserve is being called on again as the military faces recruitment problems; 5600 people this time for Afghanistan and Iraq.

• Israeli war planners want sea-based power projection capability to deploy sizable forces with all their gear thousands of miles from Israel, saying it’s necessary for Israel to fight the war on terrorism. The IAF’s abilities are no longer considered sufficient.

• Where’s the exit? Factions of the Iraqi insurgency are looking for an “exit strategy” after the successful election in January. This is further evidence that delaying the election would have been a bad idea. Austin Bay says part of the exit strategy would include turning in Zarqawi.

• The Kyrgyzstan opposition ejects president-for-life Askar Akayev, but the status of the new government is in dispute.

• A new terror organization called Jund Ash Sham staged Qatar’s first suicide attack. They also claimed responsibility for an explosion at a Texas refinery that killed 15. The house used to make the bomb has been found.

Other Topics Today Include:
CIA bungling; Iranian stockpiling; US to weaken Assad; Lebanese politics paralyzed; the Coast Guard arming up; FBI bungling; the Tri-Border area; Portland vs. the Feds; Zimbabweans miss the white man; Nigeria a powderkeg as usual; everyone annoyed with Japanese designs on their islands; Baluchistan chaos; we can assassinate Al Qaeda terrorists says Porter Goss; Harrier jump-jet proves its worth and much, much more…

Read the Rest…

[See original story here - there were reports yesterday that the Abu Sayyaf guys surrendered, but I guess not]

Philippine police have stormed a Manila prison to put down a deadly revolt by members of a Muslim separatist group linked to al Qaeda, killing 21 inmates.

Among the dead were four Abu Sayyaf leaders, according to Gen. Avelino Razon, chief of the Philippine National Police.

Most of the others killed are believed to be members of the group.

Five police officers were also wounded in Tuesday’s raid.

The uprising was staged by members of the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf.

U.S. and Philippine authorities say the group is linked to al Qaeda and Indonesia’s Jemaah Islamiyah, the group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. In addition, we also have our in-depth Iraq Report today.

Today’s Winds of War briefing is brought to you by Bill Roggio of the fourth rail and evariste of Discarded Lies.

Top Topics

• A member of the Israeli parliament that works closely on defense issues states that Israel will only attack Iran “as a last resort”. Israel has plans for a combined attack on the Natanz nuclear facility, including raids by the storied Kingfisher commando unit and bunker-busters dropped from F-15s. Ariel Sharon and his inner cabinet gave preliminary approval for a plan to strike last month in a meeting at his ranch.

• Secret FBI report (if it’s so secret why do we know what’s in it?): Al Qaeda can’t hit us spectacularly any more. Condi: don’t be so quick to write them off. Interpol: Al Qaeda still formidable. FBI chief Mueller is concerned about Al Qaeda members crossing the border with fake IDs. And what hope is there, really, to block fake IDs when authorities admit that college students are always one step ahead of them?

• Zarqawi’s thoughts on attacking the US mainland are disturbing, as he ponders hitting “soft” targets like schools and restaurants.

• This Daily Star editorial looks at Hezbollah’s poor strategizing in siding with Syria over the Lebanese it claims to represent.

• America’s still putting the heat on Syria as the first Syrian troops returned home from Lebanon. And not only America…even Russia.

Other Topics Today Include:

• Iranian nuclear games: Roulette; Fun in Palestine; Nour free at last; Legitimizing Hezbollah?; The Homeland update; Aryans hearts Islamists; The Blind Sheikh still can speak to his flock; GPSC thinks big; The Nigerian Time-bomb; JI heart MILF; China hearts hates Taiwan; Khan!!!!!!; The dangers of outsourcing, to the Indians; New sheriff in Chechnya; A variety of European failures on the policing front; Kofi hearts Hezbollah; UN Peacekeepers heart Rape; Terrorist marketing strategies; and much, much more…

Read the Rest…

Police surrounded the facility at Manila’s Camp Bagong Diwa, where authorities have detained 129 suspected members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, including several leaders.

Mujib Hataman , a Muslim congressman who was negotiating with the inmates by telephone, said they were demanding assurances they won’t be harmed if they surrender, speedy trials, the right to air their grievances to authorities and interviews with the media.

“We are now closer to an agreement,” he said.

At least three guards were killed, said police Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. Two Abu Sayyaf members also were killed, police said.

This report says four people have been killed; this one says five.

More info on what happened:

Three Abu Sayyaf inmates in an apparent attempt to break prison grabbed three short firearms from jail guards while queuing for breakfast 7:00 a.m. Monday.

The bandits opened fire on jail officers resulting to the death of three officers and wounding of five others.

Senior Jail Officers Juan Dagay and Juan dela Cruz were declared dead on arrival when rushed to the nearby Sabili hospital in Bicutan.

Jail Officer I Amadeo Salapati who was rushed to Makati Medical Center was also declared dead by attending doctors while his companion Alberto Lubreo is still in a critical condition.

Razon said Alhamzer Manatad Limbong alias Kumander Kosovo led the bloody prison break attempt.

He said all 125 inmates holed up in four-storey prison building run by the Bureau of Jail Management of Penology are Abu Sayyaf members and among them are Ghalib Andang alias Kumander Robot and Nadzmie Saabdulah alias Kumander Global.

UPDATE:

Inmates surrender:

“There was some delay because they feared for their safety,” said Avelino Razon, police chief for the metropolitan Manila area. “But they changed their minds and they’ve agreed to come out.”

Under the agreement to end the daylong standoff, two inmates were to address the media, and the others were then to emerge in groups of about 10, said Mujib Hataman, a Muslim congressman who was negotiating with the inmates by telephone.

AFP: One hurt in blast at Philippines Muslim regional government complex

COTABATO, Philippines, (AFP) - A powerful home-made bomb has exploded in a compound housing offices of an autonomous Muslim regional government in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato, wounding one person, police said.

The blast late Friday came two days before Latin American ambassadors were scheduled to visit the city to scout for investment opportunities, officials said.

The explosion was the second to rock Cotabato city this week. On Wednesday unidentified men tossed a hand grenade into a residential district, killing an eight-year-old child and wounding three others.

The ARMM consists of four mostly Muslim provinces and a city in the southern island of Mindanao, the scene of a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels operate in the area, as do other armed groups of former guerrillas who have turned to banditry.

AP: U.S.-backed forces fail to get Abu Sayyaf leaders in assaults in southern Philippines

Two Abu Sayyaf leaders wanted by Washington escaped from a series of assaults by U.S.-trained forces in clashes that killed a marine and wounded an undetermined number of rebels in the southern Philippines, officials said Wednesday.

One marine was killed and seven others injured … Rebel two-way radio chatter and bloodstains at one clash scene indicated casualties among the guerrillas …

… U.S. help in the assaults indicates Washington's continuing desire to help the Philippines crush remnants of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf in the southern Mindanao region despite a high-profile spat in July over President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's decision to withdraw peacekeepers from Iraq to save a kidnapped Filipino.

American officials are also concerned over the reported presence of secret terror training camps in Mindanao maintained by Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaida's Southeast Asian ally.

AP: Philippines Sentences Abu Sayyaf Members

MANILA, Philippines - A southern Philippines court sentenced 17 members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group to death Friday for kidnapping nurses from a hospital there three years ago.

Only 13 of the defendants were at the heavily guarded court house in Isabela, capital of the southern Basilan island, where a clerk read the ruling that described a kidnapping spree that began with the mass abduction of more than 50 pupils, teachers and a priest in 2000 and continued with the taking of 17 Filipino tourists and three Americans a year later. Two of those Americans died.

The four other convicts escaped during a mass jailbreak from the Basilan provincial prison earlier this year and were sentenced in absentia.

See also this report from the Manila Times.

The armed forces in the Philippines say they have killed one of the five leading members of the Abu Sayyaf - an armed group of Filipino Muslims notorious for kidnapping hostages.

The army says the man, Hamsiraji Sali, was killed during an exchange of fire with an elite unit who cornered him in a village on the southern island of Basilan.

... The US had offered a reward of $1m for the capture of Sali who was wanted for his alleged part in kidnapping three Americans in the Philippines nearly three years ago.

THE PHILIPPINE government has "first claim" on the suspected terrorists in its custody, including one whose extradition the United States is seeking to stand trial for the abductions and subsequent murders of its two citizens at a resort in Palawan province in 2001, a Malacañang official said on Wednesday.

"We acknowledge that the US is an ally but at this point, they would have to wait first because we have the first claim," said Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, a day after it was reported that the US has asked the National Bureau of Investigation to start extradition proceedings against Alhamzer Manatad Limbong, alias "Kosovo."

Kosovo is one of six suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf arrested last month for allegedly planning to bomb establishments in Metro Manila.

... the US government wants Kosovo so he can stand trial for the 2001 kidnapping of Americans Guillermo Sobero and Martin and Gracia Burnham from the Dos Palmas Resort in Palawan, and for the subsequent killing of Sobero and Martin Burnham.

MANILA, Philippines -- Two American brothers arrested in the Philippines last year for alleged ties to al-Qaida-linked groups were deported to the United States, immigration officials said Monday.

Michael Ray Stubbs, 55, of Antioch, Calif., and his brother James, 56, who also goes by the name Jamil Daud Mujahid, of Newark, N.J., were arrested in December and ordered deported.

Authorities alleged that James Stubbs met with members of the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf as well as the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The brothers had been under surveillance at the time of their arrests, and had entered the country on tourist visas. But they also carried documents indicating that they were soliciting funds to build Muslim schools and mosques, officials said.

AP: Abu Sayyaf Claims Philippines Ferry Fire

The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed at least two people, though 180 more were missing, according to a radio report.

The Radio Mindanao Network said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sulaiman claimed Friday’s explosion was revenge for government attacks in the southern Mindanao area. Abu Sayyaf has often called the radio network in the past.

Fire raced through the Superferry 14 on Friday shortly after it left Manila for central and southern islands, killing one person and injuring 12 others. Witnesses reported a powerful explosion that sparked an inferno.

Two senior members of a militant Islamic group in the Philippines have been sentenced to life imprisonment for abducting an American citizen.

The two men, Hector Janjalani and Muhammad Ajijon, belong to the Abu Sayyaf group, which is fighting for a separate Muslim state in the Philippines and is said to have links with al-Qaeda.

They were found guilty of kidnapping an American man, Jeffrey Schilling, while he was visiting the island of Jolo with his Philippine fiancée in 2000.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) must start peace talks with the government soon and win millions of dollars of development aid, or risk being declared an enemy of the United States, a US embassy official said Thursday.

US authorities are reviewing the actions of the MILF with a view to its possible inclusion in the State Department's "foreign terrorist organization" blacklist, US charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli said.

"It is an ongoing assessment process. It is an issue that may in the next year or two really reach a conclusion," he told a Foreign Correspondents' Association of the Philippines press forum.

A Filipino Muslim couple -- whose names have not been released -- were arrested in Northern Ireland on suspicion of being a conduit of funds for the Jema’ah Islamiyah network in Ireland.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Wednesday the arrest Friday of a Filipino nurse working there and her husband. They are Muslim converts.

The department said the nurse was released Wednesday and cleared of terrorist charges.

But her husband was detained for interrogation. Irish police said the husband’s presence and activities in Northern Ireland were “quite suspicious” because he was unemployed but had reportedly huge amounts of money.

A TOP Abu Sayyaf rebel leader implicated in the kidnapping of dozens of mostly European hostages in April 2000 was captured in an operation in the southern Philippines today, the military chief said.

Galib Andang, popularly known as Commander Robot, was held after a gunfight on the island of Jolo, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Narciso Abaya said.

"This is one big step in our international fight against terrorism," Abaya said, without giving details.

Andang, who was wounded in the gunbattle, was part of a band of Abu Sayyaf members who raided Malaysian resorts in Sipadan island in April, 2000, seizing 21 European, Malaysian and Filipino hostages.

...Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, told Reuters it would be almost impossible for both sides to sign a peace agreement before President Arroyo’s current term ends next June, just after the polls.

“Personally, even if President Arroyo returns to power after the elections, the peace process cannot be finished,” Kabalu told Reuters.

“Whether we like it or not, we have to wait for a new administration. The way I look at it, the government is not determined to resolve the issue within the president’s term.”

Kabalu said there were three issues delaying the resumption of formal peace talks, including the failure to deploy 25 foreign cease-fire observers in Mindanao, where the MILF and other rebel groups are based.

He said the government should also comply with an agreement to withdraw all criminal cases against MILF leaders and pull its troops out of Buliok, a marshy guerrilla enclave in Mindanao.

“If government cannot implement these minor agreements, what guarantee could we get that government can honor much larger political, social and economic commitments under a final peace agreement,” he said.

Security forces recovered a bio-terror manual and traces of possible biological weapons in a raid on a Jemaah Islamiah hideout in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato, the army said today.

Local police said up to eight local and foreign JI suspects escaped yesterday's raid in central Cotabato but left behind what vice chief of staff Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia described as possible residues of a "tetanus virus-carrying chemical".

A "bio-terror manual" was also recovered, Garcia said over ABS-CBN television.

The raid on a Cotabato apartment unit was launched a day after the visit to Manila of US President George W Bush and more than two weeks after the arrest in Cotabato of Indonesian Taufiq Rifqi, described by the Filipino authorities as the number-two man of JI.

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) -- The Philippine military said it killed escaped Indonesian militant Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi on Sunday, eliminating a major security threat just six days before U.S. President George W. Bush visits Manila.

"It's confirmed," Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, vice chief of the armed forces, told reporters. "I cannot give you any further details. The president will make an announcement tomorrow."

Al-Ghozi, a member of the Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), embarrassed the Philippine government by walking out of his cell at national police headquarters in mid-July.

The Philippines government remains optimistic that a peace settlement with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front will be signed in the coming weeks.

President Gloria Arroyo is also set to hold one-on-one talks in New York with Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, particularly on Malaysia's offer to host the resumption of peace negotiations.

FOUR Abu Sayyaf guerrillas were killed in a clash with navy troops escorting a commercial trawler off the coast of the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga, the military said today.

The Muslim gunmen were in a motor boat and attacked the commercial trawler late Friday, triggering a high-seas clash that left four of them dead, an officer said.

The rebels last year seized four Indonesian seamen after boarding their vessel near the southern island of Basilan. They were taken to the nearby island of Jolo, where one of them escaped and the three were killed.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on South-SE Asia, courtesy of Robi Sen.

• India continues to claim that Pakistan supports terrorist camps. The Strategypage has more on this topic, and what's going on in between India and Pakistan on a day to day basis. And have we mentioned the wall India is building in Kashmir?

• JK: Winds of Change.NET explains what's at stake politically in Kashmir, from both India and Pakistan's point of view. Not to mention the nuclear stakes involved.

read the rest! »

Chairperson Salamat Hashim of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) died of cardiac arrest on July 13, MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu confirmed on national television Tuesday morning.

The MILF central committee has elected Al-Haj Murad Ibrahim, vice chairperson for military affairs and the second most senior official of the rebel group after Hashim, as Hashim's replacement, Kabalu said in an interview over GMA Network's "Unang Balita" early morning newscast.

Formal peace negotiations between the government and the MILF are expected to resume shortly in Kuala Lumpur.

The two sides recently signed a ceasefire agreement in a prelude to resuming talks, with Malaysia as mediator.

BBC:

Police in the Philippines are investigating a claim that last weekend's failed coup attempt included a plot to kill President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said the reported assassination plot was the subject of an intelligence report which had yet to be validated.

AP:

Dozens of digruntled soldiers stormed a major commercial center in Manila's financial district early Sunday, hours after the Philippine president ordered the arrest of mutinous officers believed to be plotting a coup.

Heavily armed men in camouflage uniforms rigged explosives at several locations around the Glorietta complex, which includes one of the capital's largest shopping malls, and in front of the adjacent Intercontinental Hotel. Guests were barred from leaving for their safety.

"These explosives are set to defend our position. If they try to take us down, we will be forced to use it," navy Lt. Sr. Grade Antonio Trillanes, one of the officers Arroyo ordered arrested, told reporters on the scene.

AP...

MANILA, Philippines - An Indonesian man who allegedly confessed to involvement in bombings in Manila that killed 22 people escaped from jail early Monday along with two other suspected Muslim extremists, police said.

Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, a reputed leader of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, and the other two men escaped from police intelligence custody, national Police Chief Hermogenes Ebdane said.

The escape took place before dawn from the heavily secured command building at Camp Crame, the national police headquarters in Manila. Ebdane said three policemen guarding the three were being investigated, and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered them sacked immediately.

AP:

MANILA, Philippines - A bomb exploded in a crowded market in the southern Philippines on Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring 26 others, including many children.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Koronadal, about 600 miles south of Manila. The Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has a presence in the region, denied any role in the explosion.

"There are many children among the casualties, both among the dead and wounded," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero. Lucero cited reports as saying six people were killed, but two local hospitals confirmed only three dead — including an 11-year-old boy — and 26 injured.

The United States is now keen on brokering peace negotiations between the Philippine government and Muslim rebels, following reports that Malaysia was having second thoughts about hosting the talks.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel Saturday announced that the US government was "forming a team to craft an appropriate role" for itself in the long-stalled process, should Malaysia pull out.

Quoting official sources, the Inquirer earlier reported that Malaysia would back out unless the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stopped treating MILF peace negotiators as terrorists. This was after Malacañang turned down the Malaysian government's proposal to lift the arrest warrants against the MILF leadership.

Pimentel made the disclosure after a meeting with Ambassador Richard Solomon, president of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government said Thursday it will resume peace talks with communist rebels, stalled since 2001, following a meeting with exiled guerrilla leaders in the Netherlands.

The government pulled out of the last round of talks after guerrillas killed a former congressman they accused of human rights violations.

The United States and the European Union included the New People's Army on their lists of foreign terrorist organizations last year. Since then, the rebels, who have been fighting for a Marxist state for more than three decades, have stepped up attacks.

AP via Yahoo:

MANILA, Philippines - Muslim separatist guerrillas plotted to bomb Manila's international airport last year and have organized terrorist training in the country's south, according to a military analysis of captured rebel documents.

The documents also strongly indicate the Moro Islamic Liberation Front might be getting weapons and financial support from abroad, said the confidential military report seen by The Associated Press.

The MILF, which has been fighting for Muslim self-rule in the southern region of Mindanao for more than 30 years, has been blamed for bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 200 people this year.

Full article...

THE secessionist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will file a formal protest before the United Nations Human Rights Commission regarding the alleged religious persecution being done by the military and its “baseless” accusations against the group.

In a telephone interview, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu accused the Armed Forces of waging a “despicable pattern of attacking alleged MILF camps while a religious performance is going on.”

The MILF has no legal personality before the world body and may use member nations of the Organization of Islamic Conference to represent its interests.

The United States is actively participating in the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front through a US government-funded agency, US Ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone disclosed on Friday.

In an exclusive interview with The Manila Times, Ricciardone said the US government decided to participate in the peace process after it was approached by a faction of the MILF for help in carrying out livelihood programs.

Ricciardone identified the “quasi nongovernment organization” as the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). The Washington-based agency is headed by Richard Solomon–who served as US ambassador to the Philippines in 1992–and is staffed by former ranking US government officials.

AP:

TACLOBAN, Philippines - Communist rebels attacked a remote army camp in the central Philippines on Thursday, killing at least 17 people, police said.

Regional deputy police chief Senior Supt. Edwin Pfleider said the camp in Cagpili village, outside Oras town in Eastern Samar province, came under attack from the communist New People's Army at around 6:30 a.m.

He said at least 11 soldiers, five government militiamen and the wife of a soldier were killed. The rebels also suffered casualties, he said, but gave no details. Army reinforcements were sent to the area, he said.

Full article...

JAKARTA - A suspect in a deadly McDonald's restaurant bombing told a court Tuesday that he and other Indonesian Islamic militants had trained at a rebel camp in the southern Philippines.

Suriyadi Masud made the remarks at the trial of Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual head of the regional al-Qaeda linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

His testimony further confirms the regional nature of terrorism in Southeast Asia, something highlighted during the investigation into last year's Bali bombings.

U.S. counterterrorism training aimed at crushing al-Qaeda-linked Moro rebels in the southern Philippines has been tentatively reset to December to ensure the U.S. troop presence doesn't violate the Philippine constitution, military officials said Thursday.

President Arroyo plans to send her legal adviser, Avelino Cruz, to the U.S. to finalize the terms of the exercises that should exclude an American combat role, the officials said. The constitution bars foreigners from fighting in the Philippines.

...the exercises have been tentatively reset to December, but another senior military official said they could be postponed until next year because of unresolved issues, including the wording of the terms of reference, to ensure the Americans stay away from combat.

[Philippine] President Macapagal-Arroyo said Tuesday she was sending her chief legal counsel to the United States to finalize ground rules for Balikatan exercises in Sulu later this year -- even as the commander in chief of the US Pacific Command arrives Wednesday to visit American forces already here.

The proposed exercises, to begin in the second half of the year in the province of Sulu, seek to help the ill-equipped military crush the Abu Sayyaf, the notorious bandit group.

About 1,000 US troops were deployed on Basilan island for Balikatan 02-1, but they were prohibited from joining actual combat patrols.

US forces, however, helped their Filipino counterparts track the Abu Sayyaf, leading to the rescue of American missionary Gracia Burnham and the death of senior rebel leader Abu Sabaya.

The southern Philippines has become the training center for Al Qaeda's Southeast Asia affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, drawing recruits from a number of countries, according to Western and Philippine officials.

For the last six to nine months, recruits mostly from Indonesia and Malaysia, but also a few from as far off as Pakistan and the Middle East, have received training at inaccessible, rough-hewn sites — basically a few huts and some tents — in a marshy region on the island of Mindanao, officials said.

The training is similar to what their older colleagues in terrorism got in Afghanistan when that served as Al Qaeda's base, they added.

COTABATO CITY–At least 19 people, including 12 militiamen and 5 civilians, were killed after suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stormed an Army detachment in Carmen, North Cotabato, at dawn Thursday, military officials said.

The incident came a day after the MILF military affairs chief, al-Haj Ibrahim Murad, declared a 10-day unilateral cease-fire beginning June 2 “to give peace talks a chance to resume” in the South.

Maj. Julieto Ando of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao said the rebels also set on fire 10 houses in Sitio Baroin, Barangay Macabinban in Carmen.

Separatist Muslim rebels facing a military offensive by the government in the southern Philippines have declared a 10-day unilateral ceasefire.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the ceasefire would come into effect next Tuesday and urged the government to reciprocate.

The government has not officially responded to the ceasefire offer, but the southern military chief Major General Roy Kyamko rejected it as a "tactical move", the Associated Press news agency reported.

... According to the Committee to Defend Filipino Progressives in Europe (Committee-Defend), defrocked Catholic priest Luis Jalandoni, chair of the communist-led National Democratic Front peace panel and head of its international relations office, was even further asked to discuss the issue before the chamber’s meeting held early this month at the Moses Room of the House of Parliament in Westminster, London. The gathering, with the theme, "This War of Terror Threatens Us All," was hosted by Lord Rea of UK’s Labor Party, and called for by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and the Campaign Against Criminalizing Communities.

Committee-Defend said that Jalandoni discussed before the meeting "the increasing US military intervention in the Philippines," which the NDF leader stated has been manifested in the inclusion of Sison and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Washington ‘s list of "foreign terrorists."

It was in August last year when the US listed the CPP and NPA as "terrorist" groups. In October, the 15-nation European Union (EU) included Sison and the CPP-NPA in its list of "terrorist threats." This resulted to the suspension of the social, health and housing benefits, as well as the monthly allowances, then being extended by the Dutch government to the communist leader.

A BOMB expert of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) believed to be behind the Dec. 30, 2000 bombings in Metro Manila that left 22 people dead was caught Sunday at the Cagayan de Oro City airport, according to the military.

Alex Soriano, alias Muklis Yunos, was arrested along with an Egyptian Islamic missionary while about to board a Philippine Airlines plane bound for Manila. The Egyptian was identified as Dia'a Algabri.

Intelligence officials believe Yunos is the head of the MILF's Special Operations Group that was allegedly behind a series of bombings in Mindanao and in Manila in recent years.

Yunos, allegedly one of the conduits of the regional Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah in Mindanao, was also believed to be behind the bombing of a bus on Edsa Avenue in the Balintawak district of Quezon City on Oct. 18, 2002 that killed two people and wounded 20 others.

ZAMBOANGA CITY — At least 28 soldiers were killed as fighting between government troops and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas raged overnight Wednesday in the areas of Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte, a rebel spokesman claimed.

On the other hand, the military announced the surrender of 97 MILF guerrillas, six of them commanders of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), in Iligan City yesterday.

Commander Bravo, one of the most wanted MILF leaders tagged as responsible for the Maigo and Kolambugan attacks, downplayed the surrender, claiming the "surrenderees" were hired by the local officials for propaganda purposes. MILF vice chairman for military affairs Al Haj Murad also dismissed as "preposterous" the military’s claim of rebel casualties.

Murad claimed the figures of the rebels killed in the offensives were "padded" to project the superiority of the Armed Forces against secessionist groups operating in Southern Mindanao.

GOVERNMENT security forces on Wednesday averted a plot to launch a series of bombings in Metro Manila with the arrest of seven suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in a predawn raid in Tondo.

Confiscated from them were 4 kilos of ammonium nitrate, 16 pieces of non-electrical blasting caps and assorted time devices.

...[Philippine National Police chief] Ebdane said the suspects would be interrogated to determine if they are behind the plot to bomb several areas in Metro Manila.

“We have to look into that [suspects’ links to reported MILF terrorist plot in Metro Manila]. But they have been under continuous surveillance and there were search warrants because of the presence of the explosives,” Ebdane said.

Intelligence agents have found to be "credible" the claim of a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) that terrorists tried to recruit him to plant bombs in one of many American apartment buildings in Saudi Arabia.

A source in the intelligence community, who interviewed the man known as "Mang Boy," said they are working with Saudi investigators to get "pictures" of the terrorists.

"He is credible," said the intelligence agent who asked not to be named. "His statements are consistent. In that sense, he could be used as a witness."

But a police official said investigators are determining whether Mang Boy could help Saudi police in investigating the bombings.

"Beyond that we can do nothing," the police official said. "We are taking his statements and interviewing him as we could not just take his words at face value and endorse him to Saudi authorities. It’s not for us to decide. It’s the Saudi authorities."

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gets a grand reception at the White House on Monday, a meeting with President Bush and a state dinner. It's payback for her loyal support of the fight against international terror, but she wants to take home more than memories.

Arroyo is asking the United States for economic aid, trade concessions and money to combat terrorists.

Arroyo was among the first world leaders to call Bush and express condolences after the Sept. 11 attacks. Arroyo and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore were the only two Southeast Asian leaders to support the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and she expelled three Iraqi diplomats after Bush asked U.S. allies to do it. The Philippines is sending a 175-member humanitarian mission to postwar Iraq.

Besides Bush, during her visit she is scheduled to talk with Secretary of State Colin Powell and members of Congress, meet with representatives from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, give a speech at the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and receive an honorary degree at Fordham University in New York.

ZAMBOANGA CITY-- A day after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered "selective" attacks on "embedded terrorist cells" in Mindanao, the death toll has risen to more than 80 MILF rebels, the military's top general in the area said Sunday.

Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko said air strikes using OV-10 bombers and an artillery barrage using 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers started in at least four points in Mindanao shortly after the President issued her directive on Saturday.

...In Camp Aguinaldo, Gen. Narciso Abaya, Armed Forces chief of staff, said the assaults were directed against selected strongholds of the separatist MILF where suspected assailants have fled following bombings and attacks that have left more than 210 people dead so far this year.

A Filipino worker who escaped from Saudi Arabia and who could be a possible witness in Monday's bombing at the Saudi capital of Riyadh that killed several Americans, three Filipinos and nine bombers is now in the custody of the National Police.

Director Ricardo de Leon, chief of the National Police Directorate for Police-Community Relations, said the Filipino, whose identity he withheld, was approached by terrorists who tried to recruit him into pulling off the bombing at the American enclave.

As of Friday night, de Leon said the worker is still undergoing debriefing for leads that might point to the identities of the suspects and the unmasking of their terrorist operations.

Embassies of "friendly" countries including the US and Saudi Arabia have been notified of the yielding of the Filipino.