Muslim With Link to Miltant Group Arrested

(Jihad Watch) – The Philippines arrested a Muslim with links to a local militant group and seized improvised explosives, preventing an attack on a ferry in the south of the country, navy officials said on Monday. Captain Geronimo Malabanan, a navy spokesman, said the man was caught on Monday during a raid on a suspected hideout of the Abu Sayyaf group on the island of Jolo . Another man escaped. Improvised explosives, bomb-making materials and documents were found hidden in the ceiling of the house, Malabanan said. “He was caught red-handed,” Malabanan told Reuters. “He belonged to an urban terrorist cell of the Abu Sayyaf led by a certain Alhabsi Misaya, an expert bomber.” A senior navy official said the arrest may have prevented planned attacks by Abu Sayyaf on passenger and cargo ferries in the southern Philippines .