'Militant Al-Ghozi was not killed'

'Militant Al-Ghozi was not killed'

PHILIPPINES: The Philippine army said on Monday tests had shown that a Moro rebel killed by soldiers on the southern island of Mindanao at the weekend was not fugitive Indonesian militant Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi.

Al-Ghozi, a member of the regional militant network Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), is accused of masterminding bombings that killed 22 people in Manila in December 2000.

Intelligence agencies suspect his hand in other planned and actual attacks in the region. Washington says the bomb expert trained at an al-Qaeda camp on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Philippine security forces have conducted a huge manhunt since he escaped from a jail cell in Manila on July 14.

Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, commander of the Sixth Infantry Division, said earlier on Monday he suspected Al-Ghozi had been killed but could not be sure until a police laboratory checked the body's fingerprints and teeth against the militant's records. --Reuters