Rebels help hunt RI terrorists

Rebels help hunt RI terrorists

PHILIPPINES: Muslim separatist rebels are helping the Philippine government hunt down two Indonesian terrorists spotted by the military in the southern region of Mindanao, a guerrilla spokesman said on Thursday.

Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said the rebel group had information that Pitono, alias Dulmatin, and Umar Patek -- suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings -- were being protected by al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels.

"The two have contacts with the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadafi Janjalani," he said. "It's difficult to capture the two because they transfer location from time to time."

Virtus Gil, deputy national security adviser, said the two Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militants were recently spotted by government intelligence operatives at the border of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao provinces, about 960 kilometers south of Manila.

He added that the JI militants could have been plotting bomb attacks while in Mindanao, noting, "They'll never stop plotting. We are secure until the next bomb explodes."

Superintendent Robert Kiunisala, a regional police intelligence chief, said that late last month, 24 Indonesian JI recruits finished their training at an MILF camp in Maguindanao. Kiunisala said the 24 recruits were protected by Hamir Salamat, an alleged radical MILF commander who is a brother of the late MILF chairman Salamat Hashim.

"They (Indonesians) only trained here and their execution is in other Asian countries," he said. -- DPA