RSM, group tagged in many deadly attacks, trying to rebuild itself

From the Manila Times (Feb 29): RSM, group tagged in many deadly attacks, trying to rebuild itself

THE radical Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) has been trying to rebuild itself by recruiting more younger members to join their ranks in the past several months, a source from the police intelligence community disclosed on Monday.

“[M]ost of their members now are younger and more aggressive,” the source, based at Camp Crame and who asked for anonymity, said.

RSM is a group of former overseas Filipino workers (OFW) who had converted into Islam, and was founded by Hilarion del Rosario, alias “Akhmad Santos” in the 1990s.

The intelligence officer said the police have been monitoring at least two RSM cells – one in Cavite and another in Novaliches, Quezon City – which are suspected of being prepared as springboards to launch terror attacks in Luzon and even in Metro Manila.

The source said, meanwhile, that the group’s terror cell in Cubao, also in Quezon City, had already been deactivated by the RSM and moved this to somewhere in Laguna.

The source added that the police’s concern is that RSM members could act as guides to the newly trained recruits of the Bangasamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in launching attacks outside of their usual area of operations in Mindanao.

The intelligence officer said earlier that the police have monitored at least 100 new BIFF recruits who completed their training on bomb-making in Central Mindanao. These new recruits, the source added, could be tasked to mount test missions outside of Mindanao.

The BIFF, along with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), was among the local extremist groups in Mindanao that have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The ISIS has taken swaths of territories in the Middle East.

RSM was tagged as having been involved in several deadly attacks in the past that killed dozens of people and injured many others, the deadliest of which was the bombing of Superferry 14 on February 27, 2004 while this was cruising on Manila Bay.

Akhmad Santos was arrested by government security forces at the later part of 2005 in Zamboanga City, Mindanao, and has since been detained at the Bicutan prison in Metro Manila’s Taguig City.

http://www.manilatimes.net/breaking_news/rsm-group-tagged-in-many-deadly-attacks-trying-to-rebuild-itself/