RP confident of Al-Ghozi's capture

RP confident of Al-Ghozi's capture

PHILIPPINES: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed confidence on Friday that Philippine authorities would soon recapture fugitive Indonesian bombmaker Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi.

"We are not pegging a date for the capture of Al-Ghozi, but the hunt for him will be focused, intense and relentless," Arroyo said in Manila. "The dragnet is closing in on him and we are severely limiting his chance of getting through it."

Al-Ghozi, a self-confessed member of al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah, was serving a 12-year prison term for possession of explosives and was scheduled to be arraigned in connection with the 2000 Manila bombings that killed 22 people when he escaped from a maximum security cell at the national police headquarters in July.

Arroyo said she would visit soon the southern Mindanao region, where Al-Ghozi is believed to be hiding, to check on the efforts to track him down and to review peace efforts with Moro rebels.

Formal peace talks with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front were expected to resume in October. -- AP