Philippine city’s woe yields more arrests

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian and Philippine authorities have arrested several people suspected of links to Islamic militants who overran a city in the southern Philippines and two others who allegedly helped inspire a double suicide bombing in Jakarta, officials said Thursday.

Indonesian national police spokesman Martinus Sitompul said a man arrested Tuesday in the city of Yogyakarta in Central Java is suspected of helping Indonesians travel to Mindanao in the Philippines, where they joined Islamic State group-affiliated militants who still occupy parts of Marawi more than two weeks after their initial attack.

Police gave only the man’s initials and said four of those he helped are among seven Indonesians currently sought by Philippine authorities.

In the Philippines, officials said Cayamora Maute, the father of several of the militants behind the Marawi attack, was arrested Tuesday along with four other people at a checkpoint in southern Davao city. Maute was flown Thursday to a maximum-security detention center in metropolitan Manila, the military said.

Former Marawi Mayor Fajad Umpar Salic also was arrested in southern Misamis Oriental province late Wednesday. Maute and Salic denied any role in the Marawi attack, military officials said.

More than 200 people — mostly militants involved in the Marawi attack, along with politicians and civilians who back the gunmen — have been ordered arrested, Philippine military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano said.