 An alleged Islamic extremist wanted for the 2002 Bali bombings was not killed in a military air strike on rebel groups in the southern Philippines last week, Indonesian police said Thursday. A Philippine military official claimed over the weekend that Dulmatin and a fellow Indonesian militant were among those believed killed when aircraft targeted a rebel meeting in MinÂÂdanao last week. "We have been notified by Interpol that the report is not true," Dadang Garnida, national police deputy detective chief, told AFP. Indonesian police said DulÂmatin, whose real name is Joko Pitono, helped assemble the bombs that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, on the resort island of Bali in October 2002. The secretary of Interpol's National Central Bureau in Jakarta, Brig. Gen. Sisno AdiÂwinoto, was quoted by the Kompas newspaper as saying that nobody was killed in the Mindanao air strike. He said one person was injured in the attack and about 300 residents had later sought refuge. "So, there's no physical evidence that DulÂÂmatin died," he was quoted as saying.
| If nobody died, it's probably safe to assume he didn't. |
The Philippine local military commander, Col. Gerry JalanÂÂdoni, said Saturday that intelligence reports indicated the air strike had killed two of three Indonesian members of the Jemaah Islamiya extremist group. He said seven bodies had been found after the air strike.
| Then he's going to have to produce them, and get confirmation from dental records or DNA. Sorry. The Fat Lady doesn't sing cheap. |
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