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| Southeast Asia |
| Foiled JI truck bomb attack on embassy bared |
| 2005-08-17 |
| Authorities earlier this year thwarted a plot by Islamic militants to mount a truck bomb attack on the US embassy in Manila, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales told AFP yesterday. The plot by the Jemaah Islamiyah would have involved âan attack on the US embassy using a 1,000 kg truck bomb,â Gonzales said in an interview. He said the explosives were recovered after Daud Santos, a Muslim convert who is allegedly a member of the JI-linked Abu Sayyaf Group, was arrested in a police raid in Manila in March. Also eyed as targets were the embassies of Australia and Britain, key antiterror allies of the United States, Gonzales said. He said Santos is now free on bail, highlighting Manilaâs failure to pass an antiterrorist law that would enable the government to hold terrorist suspects for longer periods. Under existing laws, suspects detained for possessing explosives can post bail while the judiciary determines their guilt. At that time of Santosâ arrest, the British embassy warned its citizens not to travel in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, a hotbed of Muslim militancy. âWe believe that terrorists are in the final stages of planning an attack. However, attacks could occur at any time, anywhere in the Philippines,â the embassy said in its bulletin in March. JI, which is believed to have some links to Al Qaida, has carried out a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia and elsewhere in recent years, including the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people |
| Posted by:tipper |