Philippine forces seize Abu Sayyaf arms

Arrested Abu Sayyaf leader Nadzmie Sabtulah is the highest-ranking member of the group to be arrested.

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- The Philippine military's latest drive against the kidnapping group, Abu Sayyaf, has netted an arms cache hidden in a residential compound where the country's top Muslim official lives.

Philippine police raided the property Thursday, seizing grenades and ammunition possibly intended for the Islamic militia holding U.S. and Filipino hostages.

Muslim regional chief Nur Misuari was not present when police burst into the compound in Zamboanga at dawn and confiscated boxes of grenades and bullets for assault rifles, a police spokesman said.

Misuari is the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which was the largest Muslim insurgency group in the country until it signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996.

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He is also the governor of a semi-autonomous Muslim region in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.

The Abu Sayyaf seized the 17 Filipinos and three Americans, including a missionary couple, from a tourist resort off Palawan island on May 27 and took them to their stronghold on Basilan, 560 miles south of Manila.

Most of the hostages in the group were later freed after payment of a ransom, but the guerrillas also took about 20 other Filipino hostages on Basilan. They said they beheaded one American hostage, but there has been no independent confirmation.

The military, meanwhile, denied media reports that senior members of the Abu Sayyaf rebels, who are holding the hostages, had escaped a cordon to flee Basilan island, near Zamboanga, where the captives are being held.

Arms sales

Police said the ammunition was found in a house about 110 yards from Misuari's quarters. He travels regularly and had not used his residence for some time, the police said.

The Muslim chief apparently had no knowledge the house was being used as an ammunition depot, the police said.

The military has accused some members of the MNLF of aiding and providing sanctuary for the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who have been holding about 23 hostages for weeks on Basilan.

"Police said there was a big possibility that the ammunition was intended for sale to the Abu Sayyaf," presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said.

The owner of the house fled before the raid and no one was arrested in the operation, police said.

"The operation was part of a campaign to curtail the ammunition supplies of the (Abu Sayyaf)," Maj. Bayani Gucela, head of the police raiding party, told reporters.

Commander Global

The ammunition haul follows the arrest earlier this week of an Abu Sayyaf leader Nadzmie Sabtulah.

Officials said Sabtulah planned the kidnapping of 20 people, including the three Americans, from an island resort six weeks ago.

Also known as Commander Global, Sabtulah was described by military officials as the Abu Sayyaf's most respected commanderr. He is the highest-ranking member of the group to be arrested.

The Abu Sayyaf professes to fight for an Islamic state but pursues kidnap for ransom as its main activity.

Reuters contributed to this report.