Police say they thwarted bomb attack in Basilan

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ZAMBOANGA, Philippines—Police in the southern Philippines said Sunday they had arrested three members of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group and thwarted a bomb attack.

Intelligence operatives intercepted the men Thursday night on the island of Basilan, a known hotbed of the extremists, regional police said in a statement.

Police said they seized two motorcycles, one of which was rigged with explosives, as well as handguns. They said the three allegedly planned to set off the bomb in a heavily populated urban area.

The suspects were members of a squad responsible for carrying out sabotage attacks to divert military and police attention as other members stage kidnappings, police said.

The Abu Sayyaf is a small group of militants blamed for the country’s worst terrorist attacks, including a ferry bombing in 2004 that killed more than 100.

The group is also behind a series of high-profile kidnappings of foreign and local tourists as well as businessmen.

It is on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organisations. A number of American advisers have been rotating in the southern Philippines for the past decade helping local counterparts to try to crush the group.

A number of foreign hostages are believed held by the Abu Sayyaf in the south, including two European bird-watchers seized in February and an Australian abducted last December.

Three Filipino Marines searching for the hostages were killed in a clash with the Abu Sayyaf in another island in the south last month.