The jihadis in the Philipines lose a battle. (from The Times of London )
The Philippines Government claimed an important victory in its long-running battle against Islamic terrorism today, with the seizure of a large cache of explosives and the arrest of four men suspected of links with al-Qaeda.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who faces re-election in May, claimed that the suspects were planning an atrocity on the scale of the train bombings in Madrid which killed 190 people three weeks ago.Among those arrested was a man alleged to have decapitated a kidnapped American tourist two years ago, and another said to have confessed to the sinking last month of a ferry in which more than 100 people died.