A Lucky Catch in the Philippines

Some days it is better to be lucky than good (although being both is better still). However it happened, the Armed Forces of the Philippines just got lucky as six suspected bomb-planter got caught trying to pass a checkpoint. The troops at the check point were doing a good job, so that's the good part. Here's the lucky part:

(Lieutenant Colonel Edgard) Arevalo said the arrested relatives included two wives of Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel commander Albader Parad, who led the kidnapping of three Red Cross workers on January 15.

...

Arevalo said Parad's wives and their four companions were arrested on Tuesday, hours after the bombing in Jolo town, as their motorcycles passed by a marine checkpoint in Tagbak village in Indanan town.

He identified Parad's wives as Rowena "Honey" Aksan and Nursima "Simang" Annudden. The other arrested suspects were Aksan's brother, two wives and a brother of Abu Sayyaf bomb experts.

"All the persons arrested are suspected to provide logistical and service support in terms of vehicle, purchase and delivery of food and similar commodities to their bandit Abu Sayyaf cohorts," Arevalo said.

He added that there was reason to suspect that a mobile phone seized from the group "could be part of the triggering mechanism that set off the bomb that was placed in the motorcycle that exploded" near the church on Tuesday.

Nice catch.

Maybe this will lead to a break in the attempt to rescue Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni (of Italy), the last of the three ICRC hostages taken by the Abu-Sayyaf group.

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Clarification:

It seems bombing churches is quite the fad right now in the southern Philippines, so don't mistakenly think this Jolo bombing is the same as this bombing last Sunday. That one was in Cotabato, Mindanao, and the suspected perpetrators are the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.