MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine official says an Abu Sayyaf militant leader accused of plotting a recent suicide attack in a Roman Catholic cathedral in the south may be harboring a foreign would-be suicide bomber in his jungle base.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said Thursday that Abu Sayyaf commander Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, who allegedly plotted the Jan. 27 attack at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral that killed 23 people on Jolo island, was also behind a suicide attack last year that killed 11 people in nearby Basilan province. He said the goal was to assert his new role as Islamic State group leader in the southern Philippines.
Ano told The Associated Press that government forces are monitoring an Arabic man in Sawadjaan's camp who is "a trained bomber and a suicide bomber."
