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Philippines says arrests Indonesian Jemaah Islamiah bomber
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-22 16:28
Philippine security forces said on Tuesday they arrested an Indonesian
suspected of being a bomb expert for regional Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militants who
trained local Muslim rebels for a deadly attack in Manila last month.
News of the arrest on March 16 came as soldiers and police were on full alert
with Filipinos praying, shopping and traveling in their millions during this
week's observance of Easter in the mainly Roman Catholic country.
Police have warned of fresh plots to bomb Manila after Abu Sayyaf, a group
linked to al Qaeda and JI, vowed revenge for comrades killed by security forces
after a prison uprising.
The Indonesian -- identified as Rohmat with the aliases "Zaki," "Hamdan" and
"Akil" -- was arrested on a bombing-related warrant at an army checkpoint in
Datu Saudi Ampatuan town on the southern island of Mindanao, the military said
in a statement.
"He is a big fish," said army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Buenaventura
Pascual. "He was responsible for training the people involved in the Makati
attack."
Pascual said Rohmat heard mobile phone calls by Abu Sayyaf leaders Khaddafy
Janjalani and Abu Solaiman ordering coordinated blasts in Manila's Makati
business district and two southern cities on Feb. 14 that killed 13 people and
wounded 150.
Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of several Muslim rebel groups in the southern
Philippines, was known mainly for kidnappings until it planted a bomb on a ferry
in February 2004. The country's worst terror attack killed at least 116 people.
Rohmat, who has yet to be charged over the Valentine's Day bombings and with
immigration offences after entering the Philippines illegally in January 2000,
was described as "the JI liaison officer" to Abu Sayyaf.
JI is blamed for several attacks in the region, including the Bali bombings
in October 2002 that killed 202 people.
EASTER THREAT
"We are not saying that with the arrest of Zaki that the threat of terrorism
is gone," Lieutenant-General Edilberto Adan, the military's deputy chief of
staff, told reporters after the Indonesian was paraded for the media.
"But we have dealt a big blow to their organization."
A Filipino arrested with Rohmat was later released, while two other suspects
escaped the army checkpoint on a motorcycle.
Pascual said Rohmat trained Abu Sayyaf members in explosives at a JI enclave
inside a camp on Mindanao run by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the
largest Muslim rebel group with about 12,000 fighters.
The MILF, which is due to restart peace talks hosted by Malaysia, insists it
has cut all ties with foreign militants and has shunned calls from Abu Sayyaf
leaders to rejoin the war for an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
But security analysts say connections between members of JI, Abu Sayyaf and
the MILF can be very informal and personal. An Abu Sayyaf statement last week
vowed to "bring the war to Manila" in response to an assault by police on a jail
where militants were holed up for a day after killing three guards.
Police killed 22 prisoners in the raid, including several suspected Abu
Sayyaf commanders.
On Monday, police released sketches of suspected rebels sent to stage
bombings in Manila over Easter.
The three blasts in mid-February at crowded shopping malls and transport
terminals happened during a military offensive against Abu Sayyaf camps on the
remote southwestern island of Jolo after the rebels ambushed an army
convoy.
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