AFP

Big Win in USPACOM:

There is another GWOT success being reported by the AFP at this hour (no link so far).

A Filipino who acted as a conduit for funds from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network to the Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines has been arrested, the Philippine government said Friday.

Khair Malvan Mundus, 40, who studied Arabic in Saudi Arabia, was arrested last week by intelligence agents in the southern city of Zamboanga, Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

Mundus was a 'direct intermediary of al-Qaeda funds,' channeled to Abu Sayyaf senior leader Khadaffy Janjalani to be used in 'bombing and other terroristic activities,' he told a news conference.

The funds financed a bombing that killed a US military adviser on Mindanao island in October 2002, he added.

Mundus told investigators he funnelled more than 3.5 million pesos (about 63,000 dollars) from Al-Qaeda to the Abu Sayyaf for various kidnapping and bombing attacks, Ermita said.

Among the attacks financed by this money was a bombing in the southern Philippines in October 2002 which killed an American soldier training local counter-terrorist soldiers and another blast in Kidapawan City later that month which killed seven people, Ermita said.

He also provided funds to buy a speedboat and weapons for the Abu Sayyaf and delivered uniforms and equipment used in the kidnapping of 21 foreign and local tourists and hotel staff from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan in 2000.

Mundus stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1996 and 2003, supposedly to study the Arabic language, but he travelled between the Philippines and the Middle East numerous times in that period, the defense department said.

While in Saudi Arabia, he raised money for the Abu Sayyaf and had 'dealings with Al Haramain, a non-government organization that has been linked by intelligence agencies to terrorist activities,' the department added.

The Abu Sayyaf has been targetting Christians and foreigners in the southern Philippines since the early 1990s.

Washington and Manila have both linked the group to the Al-Qaeda network and in March, the government said the authorities had prevented a major terrorist attack in Manila with the arrest of several Abu Sayyaf militants.

Capturing a high-placed finance manager is always a major success in the GWOT. What is suggestive here is that this is the second one in weeks.