Abu Sayyaf plotted Sulu chapel bombing — police

The al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group may have carried out the bombing of a Catholic chapel in Sulu province in southern Philippines last Christmas Day, where more than 10 people, including two priests and a nine-year-old girl, were injured. A police report said prior to the incident, Sulu police and the Philippine Marines received information that six Abu Sayyaf bandits were set to carry out the bombing. “Prior to the incident, Sulu [Provincial Police Office] and Philippine Marines had intelligence information that Catholic Church to include Asturias [Evangelical] Chapel would be bombed. It would be perpetrated by [Abu Sayyaf] members identified as Sali Said, Najib Magdal, Alhabsi Misaya, Kahil Kadih, a certain Alal and Khan," the police report said. Pope Benedict XVI has condemned the bombing, which occurred while a Mass was being celebrated. In Malacañang, President Benigno Aquino III said the bombing may be part of a “new terror campaign." Interviewed by reporters on Monday, Aquino said he has already asked the Department of National Defense and Department of Interior and Local Government to conduct a “more thorough investigation" to “identify the culprits and arrest them at the soonest possible time." - Jam L. Sisante/KBK, GMANews.TV