Victorino Matus, assistant managing editor

LITTLE MENTIONED in recent reports on the war on terror were the arrests last September of two men linked to al Qaeda. What makes these arrests particularly interesting is that they happened in Mindanao, an island in the southern Philippines. Jasem Alhasan, a Kuwaiti, was detained along with a known Abu Sayyaf rebel, Ustadz Sanday. (Abu Sayyaf is the terrorist group that held Americans Martin and Gracia Burnham hostage for more than a year and beheaded another American, Guillermo Sobero.) Alhasan was later deported back to Kuwait on October 8. The other suspect, Mahmoud Afif Abdeljalil of Jordan, is still being interrogated--according to authorities, he plays a much larger role in the al Qaeda network, having taken over a construction firm and other business fronts from Jamal Khalifa, the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden.

Philippine immigration chief Andrea Domingo explained that since Khalifa's departure in 1994, Abdeljalil has continued to use these fronts to funnel money to al Qaeda. His home in Zamboanga was also supposedly used as a safehouse for al Qaeda operatives in the region. It is still unclear to what extent Abdeljalil is actively involved in terrorist operations in Southeast Asia but authorities will no doubt take "pains" to extract it from him. (The Philippine National Police may very well order a "TI" or "tactical interrogation" as they did in 1995, when dealing with terrorist Hakim Abdul Murad. Connected to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and an assassination attempt against the pope, Murad was interrogated for 67 days.)

Already in custody is Taufek Refka, an Indonesian accused of financing several bombings in Mindanao earlier this year. He is also said to have learned his demolitions skills from Fathur Rahman al-Ghozi, a high-ranking member of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group held responsible for the bombings in Bali last year that killed more than 200 people. Al-Ghozi, wanted for planting bombs that killed 22 people in Manila in 2000 and for plotting against Western targets in Singapore, was arrested in January 2002. But over the summer he managed to escape, embarrassing the Manila government and leading to an intensive manhunt. Finally, last month, al-Ghozi was spotted in a getaway car in North Cotabato, Mindanao. A short chase ensued, with al-Ghozi shooting out the back window of the car. Police returned fire and killed him.

THE ATTACKS, arrests, and escapes are now a frequent occurrence in the war on terror in the Philippines, as is the complex interplay between rival factions, terrorist cells, and separatist groups. To wit, al-Ghozi, who himself learned how to use explosives in Pakistan, trained Jemaah Islamiyah recruits at Camp Abubakar in Mindanao. The camp was run by the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is currently in the midst of peace talks with Manila. The Front is also helping the Arroyo government in its fight against a dwindling but persistent band of Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Defining the enemy can be frustrating: Some members of Abu Sayyaf are linked to operatives of al Qaeda, some of whom are connected with terrorists from Jemaah Islamiyah. At times these terrorists have interacted with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Currently, the Philippine government is focused on hunting down 40 members of Jemaah Islamiyah on the loose in Mindanao.)