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| Southeast Asia |
| JI trainees being hunted down in the Philippines |
| 2005-08-16 |
| Indonesian police are working together with their Philippine counterparts to hunt down two Indonesian members of the al-Qaeda linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group who are believed to be undergoing military training at Camp Hubaidiyah in the autonomous Muslim region of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. The two alleged Indonesian members of JI - blamed for the notorious 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali which killed 202 people, as well as other attacks - were identified as Ahmad and Abu Nida. The two had escaped from Indonesia to the Philippines, an Indonesian police spokesman said. The information was obtained from Abdullah Sonata, a suspect currently being questioned by Indonesian police over his involvement in the 2003 blast outside the Australian embassy in which nine people died - also blamed on JI - said the police spokesman. Based on the information from Sonata, Umar Patek - one of terrorists allegedly behind the deadly Bali blasts and currently residing in the Philippines - was recruiting more JI members, the police spokesman said. The newly recruited members are currently undergoing military training at the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf guerilla group's training camp in Mindanao, due to a lack of skilled human resources within the JI regional terror group. The US believes Abu Sayyaf is also linked to al-Qaeda. At the request of Patek, Abdullah sent several JI members, including Faiz Saifuddin, Nasir and Dedy Rusdiana, to the Philippines last December. However, the three were immediately arrested by the Philippine authorities. Hearing the news of the arrests, Abdullah later sent JI members Maulana Musa and Salman, but they were also arrested in Tawau, Malaysia, when trying to leave for the Philippines. "They're still being detained by the Malaysian authorities," the police spokesman said. Last June, Abdullah sent Ahmad and Abu Nida and they managed to get to the Philippines. "Now, we are trying to trace their whereabouts. "We're working together with the Philippines police and we are exchanging information to prevent any unwanted incident, such as further bomb attacks," the police spokesman added. Abdullah himself was arrested in July along with another 14 terrorist suspects in various places in Indonesia, including Surakarta in Central Java, and Jakarta. In a further development, the Philippines police announced on Monday that they have killed a senior terrorist suspect believed to be Patek. However, Indonesia's foreign affairs minister Hassan Wirajuda and national police chief General Sutanto could not confirm this. Patek had been reported to have been killed by the Philippine authorities early in January 2005, but they failed to come up with proof of identity. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |