Sayyaf contact of expelled Iraqi linked to 2 bomb plots

A cell phone used by a member of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group to call an Iraqi diplomat was later used in a failed attempt to trigger a bomb, according to a confidential Philippine intelligence report.

Iraq embassy Second Secretary Husham Hussain was expelled last week after the report claimed he received a call from an Abu Sayyaf member on Oct. 3, 2002, a day after a bomb in Zamboanga City killed a US soldier and two other people.

The caller was not identified. The Iraq embassy denied any links to Philippine dissident groups, including the Abu Sayyaf, which is on a US list of foreign terrorist organizations and has been loosely linked to al-Qaeda.

Six days after the contact was made, the caller’s cell phone was used to try to set off another bomb in Zamboanga’s San Roque district, near the military’s Southern Command headquarters, but it failed to go off, according to the intelligence report, obtained by The Associated Press.

The bomb and the cell phone were later recovered by police, a security official said. The cell phone listed contacts for Hamsiraji Sali, one of five Abu Sayyaf leaders on a US wanted list.

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