Arrested Filipino militant: Terror suspect alive

Published August 6, 2014 5:32am ET



MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A captured Abu Sayyaf commander told investigators that a top Southeast Asian terror suspect, who the military reported was killed in a U.S.-backed airstrike two years ago, is alive and being harbored by a hardline Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines, a confidential police report said.

Abu Sayyaf commander Khair Mundos, who was arrested by police near Manila’s international airport on June 11, acknowledged his group has fallen into disarray, without a central leader, burdened by infighting and surviving largely on extortion and kidnappings, according to a police interrogation of Mundos, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

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