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.