Manila Police Seize Bomb Plot Suspects

The Philippine president yesterday announced that a "Madrid-level" terrorist attack on the capital Manila had been foiled following the arrest of four alleged Islamist militants and the seizure of more than 36kg of TNT explosive.

Gloria Arroyo said the suspects were known members of the Abu Sayyaf group, which is famous for kidnappings and occasional bombings. Security officials said later that some of the suspects, who were detained over the last few days in and around Manila after weeks of surveillance, also allegedly have links to Jemaah Islamiyah, considered to be al-Qaida's regional arm.

"We have pre-empted a Madrid-level attack on the metropolis by capturing an explosive cache of 80lb (36 kg) of TNT which was intended to be used for bombing [shopping] malls and trains in Metro Manila," Ms Arroyo said. "Follow-up operations are ongoing. They will be relentless."

Ms Arroyo said one of the four detained suspects allegedly executed Guillermo Sobero, an American who was kidnapped and beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf in 2001.

A second has reportedly been implicated in a bombing in Zamboanga City in 2002 in which a US serviceman died, while officials say a third has claimed responsibility for the sinking of a passenger ferry near Manila last month in which more than 100 people died and more than 100 are still missing.

The Radio Mindanao Network, based in the south of the Philippines, said on Monday it had received a warning from Abu Sayyaf that the movement would take "appropriate action" if its latest demands were not met.

These include the release of Islamist militants from local jails, all terror suspects in the American prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba freed, the removal of all Christians from the southern Philippines and foreign troops to leave the Arabian peninsula.