Japanese spotted with NPAs

From the Manila Standard Today (Nov 24): Japanese spotted with NPAs

TWO Japanese nationals were reportedly seen in the company of New People’s Army rebels, while an Indonesian national who allegedly had links with the dreaded Al-Queda terror group of Osama Bin Laden was arrested but later died at a hospital when combined police and military operatives stormed his hideout on Thursday. The Japanese nationals were seen with the rebels under the Benito Tesorio command, which clashed with Army troopers in the hinterlands of Isabela province on Saturday. The firefight resulted in the death of six soldiers and five rebels after some 30 insurgents waylaid members of the 52nd Division Reconnaisance Company in Mabayyad villagae in San Guillermo town in Isabela province on Nov. 17. Sources said the Japanese nationals were members of a non-governmental organization and their whereabouts were now being tracked by pursuing military forces. It wasn’t clear, however, if the Japanese nationals were being held hostage by the communists. Aside from the Japanese, three Dutch nationals were also seen with the rebels as soldiers continued their pursuit of the rebels toward a forested area in Mabayyad village, leaving five dead comrades. The identities of the Japanese and the three Dutch nationals were not immediately known, but the military was exhausting efforts to determine the whereabouts of the foreigners. Army Captain Alberto Caber, spokesman of the Ist Infantry Division in Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, identified the alleged Indonesian terrorist as Ustadz Sanusi alias Ishak, a member of the Jemaah Islamiya and an Islamic Scholar. Caber said Sanusi sustained a gunshot wound when he tried to escape from the combined operatives of the National Police’s Special Action Force and military intelligence units.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/11/24/japanese-spotted-with-npas/