Philippines police arrest couple with alleged ISIS connections

US and Kuwaiti security officials helped Philippine authorities identify and arrest a Middle Eastern couple with suspected links to Isis 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 US 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.

Aldhafiri, who last entered the Philippines in January, first travelled to the country last year as a tourist and later got a work visa. Officials said the Kuwaiti government plans to cancel his passport to allow the Philippines to deport him. They said he would most likely face terrorism charges in his country.

Dhafiri, a 27-year-old Syrian, was reportedly the widow of a top Isis commander in Syria and later became Aldhafiri’s partner. After her arrest, she told authorities that she was pregnant and she was sent to a hospital. She will likely be deported to Qatar, where she last came from before flying to Manila, Philippine Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said.

Earlier this year, the couple travelled to southern Davao city, President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown, and the central city of Cebu, staying for a few days in each city, Morente said.

Aguirre said the two have had no known contact with Filipino Muslim militants.

Source: /Independent