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JOLO (Philippines) - THREE people were arrested when marines in the southern Philippines intercepted a huge cache of chemicals used for making improvised explosive devices, the military said on Sunday.
The nearly 300 sacks of ammonium nitrate were aboard a small fishing vessel docked at a wharf in Indanan town on southern Jolo island on Saturday, a known stronghold of Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants.
A subsequent raid at a nearby house led to the arrest of three suspects and the seizure of blasting caps and a communication device.
A blasting cap is a device that initiates detonation of a high explosive.
Ammonium nitrate is an agricultural chemical used in making fertiliser, but is also widely used by the Abu Sayyaf in making powerful explosives for random attacks in the south.
'With blasting caps, and the ammonium nitrate, which is the basic ingredient in so-called fertiliser bombs, it is obviously meant for terrorist action,' Major General Juancho Sabban said.
He said the suspects were being investigated and authorities were not ruling out the involvement of the Abu Sayyaf.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of Islamic militants founded by Filipino Islamic firebrand Abubakar Abdurajak Janjalani after returning from Afghanistan, where he fought alongside Osama bin Laden's forces against the Soviets.
Mr Janjalani was killed in a gunbattle with Philippine police in 1998 and the group subsequently became a criminal gang specialising in kidnappings, extortion and bombings.
The Abu Sayyaf group has kidnapped dozens of foreign tourists since 2000.
It is wanted for the deaths of two American hostages they grabbed from a Philippine beach resort in 2001.
Small numbers of US forces have been training Filipino forces in the south over the past five years, leading to the arrest and killings of top Abu Sayyaf leaders. -- AFP
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