US, Kuwait help Philippines capture 2 with suspected IS ties
MANILA, Philippines — U.S. and Kuwaiti security officials helped Philippine authorities identify and arrest a Middle Eastern couple with suspected links to the Islamic State group who may have been planning bomb attacks, Filipino officials said Friday.
Philippine army intelligence agents, along with police and immigration authorities, arrested Hussein Aldhafiri and Rahaf Zina Dhafiri late last month in an upscale commercial district in Taguig city in metropolitan Manila. Their arrests were not announced until late Thursday, when the handcuffed suspects were presented to reporters but not allowed to speak.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the arrests were kept private to allow Philippine authorities to identify the pair’s local contacts and avoid the risk of their capture prompting possible accomplices to advance any planned attack. He said information provided by the U.S. and Kuwait made the arrests possible.
“I believe since nothing happened, we were able to nip whatever terrorist intention they have in the bud,” Aguirre said at a news conference in Manila.