Philippines seen as source for Indonesian bombs

Philippines seen as source for Indonesian bombs

Agencies, Manila

Bomb material used in many militant attacks in Indonesia may
have been sourced from the turbulent southern Philippines, a
senior Philippine police intelligence official said on Friday.

The official, who declined to be named, said intercepted e-
mail exchanges between militants indicated that a shipment of
high explosives had been sent early this year to Indonesia from
the Philippine island of Mindanao.

The southern Philippines has faced a separatist Muslim
rebellion for the past 40 years.

"The militants had successfully purchased materials for bombs
to be used on Indonesian targets," the intelligence official told
Reuters, citing a classified security report prepared last April.

The report summarized e-mail exchanges between suspected
Indonesian militant leader, Dulmatin, who has been hiding on
Mindanao since April, 2003, and other suspected militants.

The e-mail messages, translated from Indonesian and Arabic
into English, were shared by Indonesian intelligence with their
Philippine counterparts, said the official.

Dulmatin, a key suspect in the Bali bombings that killed 202
people in October 2002, is believed to be working closely with al
Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines.

Philippine intelligence officials believe moribund mining and
construction companies in the southern Philippines may be the
source of explosives bought by the Indonesian militants.

In January 2002, Philippine security forces seized about one
ton of explosive materials hidden in a warehouse in the southern
port city of General Santos.

The Philippines said the material, about to be shipped to
Singapore via Indonesia, was bought by Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an
Indonesian operative for the regional militant network Jemaah
Islamiyah, who planned and financed bomb attacks in Manila on
Dec. 30, 2000, that killed about 22 people.

"It was also possible that explosive materials were sourced
from unexploded bombs and mortar shells recovered by the Muslim
rebels in the south," said the intelligence official.

Meanwhile, AP reported that Muslim militants in the Abu Sayyaf
group and their Indonesian allies have been trying to solicit
money from unidentified Middle Eastern financiers to buy weapons
and fund new terror attacks, according to government reports.

Details of the fund-raising effort and planned attacks were
obtained by Philippine security officials from Indonesian
counterparts, who recently captured two suspected militants with
knowledge of Filipino rebel activities, the reports said.

Copies of the reports, which summarized intelligence relayed
by Indonesian authorities, were seen by AP on Friday.

The captured militants in Indonesia - Abdullah Sunata,
allegedly the head of a group called Kompak in Ambon, and Encen
Kurnia, who reportedly belongs to Negara Islam Indonesia (Islamic
State of Indonesia) - were among 15 suspected militants captured
by the Indonesian police during an anti-insurgency sweep from
June to July, the reports said.

Four of the 15, including Abdullah and Encen, had received
military training in southern Philippine rebel camps. The two
later helped organize covert training and to escort Indonesian
recruits from their country to the southern region of Mindanao,
according to the reports.

In letters found by Indonesian authorities, Abdullah
separately discussed with two compatriots hiding in the
Philippines - Umar Patek and Pitono or Dulmatin - the fund-
raising campaign and planned attacks in the Philippines, as well
as efforts to obtain explosives in the country for an unspecified
attack in Indonesia, the reports said.

Such continuing collaboration indicates ongoing operational
ties between militants in the Philippines and Indonesia, despite
years of counter-terror crackdowns in the two neighboring
countries.