Philippines probe al Qaeda bomb link

The Philippine government suspects links among the country's Islamic rebel groups

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines (CNN) -- Police have arrested three more suspects in connection with a spate of deadly bombings in the Philippines and are looking into links among the country's rebel groups and the al Qaeda terror network.

The arrests came in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday outside General Santos city, which was rocked by a trio of blasts on Sunday that killed 15 people and injured 71.

Alliances among Philippine rebel groups -- and a link to Islamic terror groups abroad, such as the al Qaeda -- are being probed in relation to the bombings, police say.

"The three suspects were former NPA (New People's Army), MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front), and MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front) members," regional police chief Senior Superintendent Bartolome Baluyot told CNN.

The NPA is the armed wing of communist rebels, while the MILF is the country's largest Muslim separatist group. Peace talks with both groups have stalled.

The MNLF is another separatist group that signed a 1996 peace deal with the government, but has splintered into a faction loyal to jailed former governor Nur Misuari.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO The aftermath of Sunday's bomb blast Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Abu Sayyaf: Militants in the Philippines    MORE STORIES • Warnings preceded blasts

The latest arrests bring to five the number of suspects taken into custody over the bomb blasts.

Two suspects who were arrested earlier disclosed an alleged plan to destabilize the country by hitting targets in Manila and elsewhere, police said Tuesday. The men claimed they received training at Muslim terrorist camps overseas.

'Extortionists'

The three suspects arrested Wednesday were "traced from a telephone that had a caller ID feature," Baluyot said.

They had tried to extort 300,000 pesos ($5,900) from businessmen in the city on Tuesday, threatening to stage more bombings if the amount was not paid, Baluyot added.

Sunday's attacks in the largely Christian southern city of General Santos came as the United States beefed up its military presence in the Philippines to help train local troops in repelling foreign aggression and combating terror.

Investigators have not dismissed the claim of one "Abu Muslim" who owned up to Sunday's bomb blast and said he heads a guerrilla unit of the Abu Sayyaf, another Muslim separatist group.

Suspected bombers Mulikin Adam Ambi (L) and Bobby Sabilo (R) sit locked in the city jail in General Santos following their arrest

The caller demanded that all American troops in the country withdraw.

The Abu Sayyaf, who has been linked to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network, are the target of a U.S.-backed military campaign on nearby Basilan Island.

About 3,200 U.S. troops are in the Philippines for joint military exercises with Philippine soldiers, in war games seeking to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Muslim also boasted of having links to al Qaeda, in a radio interview.

Baluyot called General Santos an "unexpected base" for terrorist operations because it is quiet and more prosperous than neighboring cities in the Philippines' main southern island of Mindanao.

The majority of five million Filipino Muslims live in Mindanao where many of the country's poorest provinces are located.

No secret

Tactical alliances between Muslim separatist groups are "no secret," Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Abdulgani Salapuddin told CNN.

In his home province, Basilan, where U.S.-Philippine war games are ongoing, Salapuddin said "there have been instances where the MILF has helped the Abu Sayyaf" evade military pursuit.

Muslim congressman Benasing Macarambon of Lanao del Sur also said that the MILF and the MNLF have provided each other support.

"They have the same (separatist) objectives," Macarambon told CNN.

A fifth terror group also under suspicion, the Indigenous Peoples Federal Army (IPFA), planted more than a dozen bombs all over Metro Manila, General Santos City, and Cotabato in March.

The IPFA claims to be fighting for three federal states for Muslims, Christians, and tribal minorities.

But investigators said the IPFA may just be a cover for existing rebel groups that mean to deflect attention from the main rebel groups.

The attacks in General Santos were the latest in a series of terror strikes in the country's politically volatile south. The bloodiest occurred in February 2000 when bombs planted on a ferry by another Islamic rebel group killed 45 people.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has responded to Sunday's bombings and the reported plan for more attacks by ordering a crackdown on terrorists and tightening security nationwide, particularly in Manila.