Free Republic

MANILA (AFP) - Jailed Al-Qaeda-linked militants remain holed up in a maximum-security Philippines prison after overpowering guards in a bloody escape attempt that has left up to six people dead in a shootout. Hundreds of snipers and police special forces units have surrounded a group of armed militants on an upstairs floor of the Camp Bagong Diwa jail and are awaiting orders to storm the building, police said. The militants overpowered the guards and seized three of their guns during a routine early morning headcount of the 435 inmates, who include 129 members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf gang...

MANILA (Reuters) - The United States has asked Manila to extradite one of six suspected Muslim militants arrested last week on suspicion of planning bomb attacks, believing he beheaded a U.S. tourist in 2001, Philippine officials said on Tuesday. They said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had requested that Alhamser Limbong, alias Kosovo, be tried in a U.S. court for the abduction of three American nationals from a beach resort in May 2001 and the beheading of one of them. "They have a photograph of Kosovo on their wanted lists," said government prosecutor Nestro Lazaro. A team of FBI...