RP calls for stepped up intelligence sharing
RP calls for stepped up intelligence sharing
Agencies Manila/Kuala Lumpur
The Philippines on Friday urged Southeast Asian countries to step up intelligence and information sharing, saying a deadly bombing in Indonesia shows the terrorist threat continues.
"We may have continued to score big against terrorists, but the attack at the Australian Embassy in Indonesia's capital clearly indicates that the challenge is indeed far from over," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.
"There is need to further strengthen intelligence and information-sharing across our regional neighborhood," he said.
Indonesian authorities have vowed to hunt down suspected Muslim militants behind Thursday's blast, which killed nine people and wounded 173.
Philippine troops and police went on full alert after the blast amid fears of terrorism linked to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, commander of military troops in metropolitan Manila, said soldiers have augmented police guarding eight embassies - including the United States, Canadian, Japanese and European Union missions - as well as the homes of three ambassadors who requested added security. The Australian Embassy is being guarded by a police security task force.
In a separate development, Malaysia tightened entry points on Friday to keep watch for two long-sought Malaysian militants who are believed to have built the car bomb that exploded outside Australia's embassy in Indonesia.
Azahari Husin, a British-trained engineer, and Noordin Mohammed Top disappeared from Malaysia three years ago during a crackdown against the al-Qaeda-allied Jamaah Islamiyah terror group.
They have since been linked to blasts on Indonesia's Bali island that killed 202 people in October 2002, and to last year's suicide bombing that killed 12 at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Malaysian security officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that surveillance at entry points - already stepped up after the pair eluded an Indonesian dragnet earlier this year - was being reinforced.
"We are also strengthening intelligence gathering with our counterparts in the region to prevent a spillover from Indonesia," an official said.
Azahari and Noordin are believed to be under the protection of some JI supporters in Indonesia, but Malaysia has long suspected they might try to return home.
Meanwhile, New Zealand offered police forensic investigators to Indonesia on Friday in the wake of the bomb blast that killed at least nine people outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.
Prime Minister Helen Clark New Zealand was appalled by the car bomb that exploded in front of the embassy building, killing nine and wounding 173.
With a special focus on terrorism in Asia, Australia, Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore began the largest joint military drills in years on Friday.
Thirty-one naval ships, 60 military aircraft, two submarines and 3,500 soldiers began the first of 16 days of exercises in the South China Sea as part of an aggressive upgrading of a 30-year- old Five Powers Defense Arrangements (FPDA) pact.
Thursday's bomb attack outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta that killed nine people provided a bloody reminder of why the pact, established in 1971 primarily to protect Malaysia and Singapore from invasion, needed to be brought up to date.
"The horrific bombing in Jakarta yesterday is yet another grim reminder that terrorism is a clear and present danger in this region," Singapore's chief of defense, Ng Yat Chung, told military staff from the five countries in a speech.
In a statement, Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce said security measures and procedures were further strengthened at the embassy following the blast in Jakarta with security personnel at the building housing the mission "exercising extra vigilance." She did not elaborate.
Troops and plainclothes intelligence agents were deployed in 21 other strategic places in the capital, including shopping malls, bus stations, ports and the business district, Braganza said.
Sea marshals with bomb-sniffing dogs were boarding commercial vessels leaving Manila to deter possible attacks by terrorists or pirates, officials said.
The Philippines has been battling armed groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, Marxist rebels and Muslim separatists, and is considered a likely terror target.
More stories on Page 10