| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Two Mindanao cities on "heightened alert" |
| 2014-06-30 |
| Philippine security forces were placed on "heightened alert" particularly in two major cities in Mindanao over a potential terrorist threat from a bomb expert with connections to the Abu Sayyaf Officials confirmed the alert was raised for the cities of Davao and Zamboanga where security operations have resulted in the arrest of long-wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders. In Davao City, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said that President Aquino personally called him up to warn him about the threat posed by Abdul Basit Usman who was believed to have orchestrated recent bombing attacks in Mindanao. Duterte said the warning prompted him to call an emergency command conference of all police and military units and agreed to set up checkpoints, as well as the deployment of lawmen in plainclothes. Officials said the same security measures have been adopted in Zamboanga City to foil attacks following the recent arrest of three suspected Abu Sayyaf leaders linked to several abductions from a resort on the island state of Sabah in Malaysia. Meanwhile, the country’s intelligence community said that Usman continued to pose a serious threat to Mindanao after he was confirmed to have been alive. Usman, who carries a $1 million bounty offered by the US government, had reportedly been killed during an American drone attack at the Afghan/Pakistan border in 2010. But the Philippine military now say that Usman is alive and that he was reportedly training Abu Sayyaf |
| Posted by:ryuge |