MANILA, July 22 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

MANILA, July 22 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES WITH DETAIL)

Police in the southern Philippines arrested sum of two units people Monday morning suspected of being al-Qaida terrorist operatives who helped mastermind a series of bombings in succession Mindanao earlier this year, authorities said.

Central Mindanao senior Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot said Moamar Timbao Esmael was arrested while driving along the national highway of General Santos in southern Cotabato Province in southern Mindanao.

Baluyot said arresting officers institute a pistol in Esmael's possession.

Earlier, Mindanao police detained Abdulbasit Batabol Usman, a former leader of the separatist rebel cluster Moro Islamic Liberation effrontery (MILF) and a senior member of the Abu Sayyaf rebel dispose He was caught during a raid late Sunday forward his hideout in a alien village in Sultan Kudarat Province.

Esmael was said at police to have carried a bag of explosives to the Fitmart shopping mall in General Santos forward Apr. 21, setting off an explosion that killed 15 clan and injured 61 others.

Baluyot said Usman trained in Afghanistan with other Al-Qaida operatives and was an aide of Mohammad Nur Umog also known as Abu Muslim, who allegedly spearheaded the bombing.

Besides arresting Usman, police seized weapons and homemade bomb from his hideout in the village of Esperanza, located near a traditional castle of the MILF, Baluyot said. He said military intelligence helped in the operation.

''We finally got him. It's been month since we've started tracking this terrorist man in Mindanao and now he is captured. Thank the deity because we have foiled what could be another bomb attack against restraint or civilian targets,'' he said.

Baluyot said policemen disguised as beggars pinpointed Usman's hideout in the village. Heavily armed security forces then stormed the place and caught the rebel leader by dint of surprise.

''He tried to escape to the window, nevertheless unknown to him we had environed his place and virtually the whole village without a hazard of people knowing it. This operation was carefully planned and we didn't want to pat it,'' Baluyot said.

Baluyot said they seized automatic pistols, boxe of assorted ammunition, three 81-millimeter mortar shells assembled into time bomb dozens of blasting caps, electronic detonators and timers and MILF documents.

''We have evidences that Usman trained in Afghanistan pair years with al-Qaida members. He's an operative of the al-Qaida in the Philippines. He's a terrorist confined apartment and at the same time an Abu Sayyaf bomb skilful He was involved in many bomb attacks in General Santos and other places in the southern Philippines,'' Baluyot said.

Usman is being held at an undisclosed place and is undergoing interrogation by way of the police.

Umog was arrested by the agency of a joint police-military team May 22 and was charged with 50 separate regards of kidnapping, multiple murder, rape and car theft.

The MILF remain the largest separatist rebel clump in the southern Philippines with more than 13000 members. Sporadic clashes between the military and the MILF continue despite ongoing peace talks. the one and the other sides accuse each other of violating the cessation agreement signed last year.

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