So, I wonder how long it will be before this turkey miraculously “escapes” from custody?

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Sun Star
Monday, December 08, 2003
Sayyaf's Commander Robot captured in Jolo

ZAMBOANGA -- A top rebel leader implicated in the kidnapping of dozens of European, American and other foreign hostages was captured Sunday in the southern Philippines, the military chief said.

The capture of Galib Andang, popularly known as Commander Robot and among the top brass in the Islamic militant Abu Sayyaf group, "is one big step in our international fight against terrorism," Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Narciso Abaya said.

Andang was shot and held after a gunfight in Panabuan village in Indanan town in Jolo, south of Zamboanga city, Abaya said. No other details were given.

The Abu Sayyaf is a group of Islamic militants branded as terrorists by Washington and Manila and said to have links with the al-Qaeda network of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The group is feared for engaging in kidnappings and bomb attacks against foreigners and Christians in the southern Philippines for more than a decade.

Andang was the most senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf accounted for by the military since the killing of another leader of the group, Mujib Susukan, in February this year.

Susukan and Andang, who was wounded in the gunbattle Sunday, was part of a band of Abu Sayyaf members who raided Malaysian resorts in Sipadan island in April, 2000, seizing 21 hostages from Europe, Malaysia and the Philippines among other countries.

The hostages were released in batches over several months allegedly in exchange for huge ransoms.

The Abu Sayyaf has also been blamed for the killing of two American hostages.

US President George W. Bush vowed during his visit to the Philippines last October to help Manila bring the Abu Sayyaf rebels "to justice".

Several hundred American soldiers have been training Philippine troops in the south to go after the Abu Sayyaf since early last year.

The Abu Sayyaf, whose name means "Bearer of the Sword", has beheaded many of its kidnap victims, including foreigners, to press demands ranging from hard cash to a separate Islamic state in the southern third of the Philippine archipelago.

The group was founded in the early 1990s ostensibly to fight for an independent Islamic state in the south but defense experts say the group had degenerated into a loosely organized bandit gang. (AFP)