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Nine Suspected of Terrorism Are Arrested in Manila

Nine Suspected of Terrorism Are Arrested in Manila
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December 31, 1995, Section 1, Page 32Buy Reprints
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Nine men suspected of being Islamic terrorists, including a man said to be the twin brother of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the man accused of masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, were arrested in Manila on Friday in raids that also netted an arsenal of weapons and explosives, Philippine officials said yesterday.

While only nine arrests were announced, intelligence officials said that 15 suspects had been taken into custody and that the other six arrests would be announced shortly. All 15 were said to be part of an international network of Islamic extremists bent on terrorism in the Philippines and other countries.

The arrested men -- Iraqi, Sudanese, Saudi and Pakistani nationals -- included Adel Anonn, described as the twin of Mr. Yousef, the shadowy electrical engineer who was seized in Pakistan in February after a two-year global manhunt and faces trial soon in New York as the central plotter in the trade center case.

The trial of Mr. Yousef and two other men is to be the third arising from the trade center blast, which killed six people and injured hundreds. In 1994, four men were convicted of the bombing, and 10 others, including Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, were convicted in October of plotting to blow up other New York City landmarks.

In Manila, Mr. Anonn, the proprietor of a tourist-district butcher shop, was said to have used aliases, including Adel Bani, but had an Iraqi passport, and is about the same age as Mr. Yousef, a 28-year-old Kuwaiti. The police said Mr. Anonn was identified as Mr. Yousef's brother by an informer who had infiltrated a suspected terrorist group to which Mr. Anonn belonged.

The Philippine Interior Secretary, Rafael Alunan, said at a news conference in Manila that the police had raided homes and a hotel and seized the suspects with plastic explosives, blasting caps, a bomb, detonating cords, time fuses, a pistol, maps of Manila and passports and other documents.

Besides Mr. Anonn, the suspects were listed as Abdul Kareem Jassim Bidawi, Haleem Jassim Bidawi, Jamaal Jaloud, Ibrahim Abid and Najim Nasser, all Iraqis; Emad Almubarak, a Sudanese; and Saleh Al Quuwaye and Zaid Al Amer, both Saudi Arabians. All were charged with possession of weapons and explosives.

"According to our initial analysis, they are with a global movement calling for a global jihad to promote the establishment of an Islamic empire," Mr. Alunan said. "Given the kinds of items captured with them, apparently they had plans to detonate bombs or explosive devices."

An Associated Press report said that Mr. Anonn had denied he was Mr. Yousef's brother and that as the nine were led away after being shown to reporters at the National Police Headquarters, one shouted: "We are not terrorists."

Philippine officials are concerned that their country has become a haven for terrorists, in part because security is lax at ports of entry and immigration authorities inadequately monitor the movements of foreigners. In addition, Filipino Muslim insurgents have mounted a campaign of bombings and kidnappings.

The arrests came only a week after seven Pakistanis were captured in Manila and charged with plotting to stage attacks and disrupt next year's meeting of Asian-Pacific leaders in Manila. Aside from the claim that Mr. Anonn was Mr. Yousef's brother, however, there were no indications that any of the suspects had links to the New York terrorism cases.

Investigators have called Mr. Yousef a highly trained professional who moved around the world to recruit terrorists. They said he escaped after the Trade Center explosion, turned up later in Manila and plotted without success to bomb airliners in the Far East and assassinate Pope John Paul II. As the police closed in on him in January, he fled Manila but was arrested in Pakistan a month later.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 32 of the National edition with the headline: Nine Suspected of Terrorism Are Arrested in Manila. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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