RP takes hut used by Al-Ghozi protectors

RP takes hut used by Al-Ghozi protectors

Agencies, Zamboanga, Philippines

Troops have overrun a hut believed to have been used as a monitoring post by Muslim gunmen protecting escaped Indonesian militant Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi in the southern Philippines, the military said on Tuesday.

Seized from the hut in the town of Tungawan were communications equipment and solar panels but no arrests were made because the rebels escaped hours before the soldiers arrived on Monday, the military said.

"While government troops were closing in on their target, said armed group scampered from a makeshift hut leaving behind their communications equipment," the military's southern command said.

The men who fled are believed to be Moro gunmen protecting Al- Ghozi, who has been on the run after escaping from a jail inside the police headquarters in Manila in July.

Al-Ghozi is a self-confessed member of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), which western intelligence agencies have linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and blamed for a spate of bombings in Indonesia, including the Bali attacks that left over 200 dead last year.

At the time of his escape, Al-Ghozi was serving a 17-year jail term for illegal possession of explosives. He has also admitted to helping plot a bombing spree in Manila in December 2000 that left over 20 dead.

Thousands of police officers, backed by military troops, have been scouring areas in the southern Philippines for al-Ghozi.

"Operating troops are still in the area and conducting follow- up operations," the southern command said.

Separately, Indonesia's police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Tuesday that Indonesian police had failed to find Al-Ghozi during a hunt through his home village and other potential hideouts.

Indonesia was cooperating in the search for Al-Ghozi, including information exchanges with the Philippines, because he could still carry out attacks, Bachtiar said.

"We watched his village in Java and we watched other places in Indonesia," Bachtiar told reporters. "Until now, we have no information about Al-Ghozi...but we're working hard to find him."

Bachtiar and other Southeast Asian police chiefs are in Manila for an annual conference.

Philippine national police chief Hermogenes Ebdane said a national manhunt was focused in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, where sightings of Al-Ghozi have been reported.

A separate military search was under way on the southern Zamboanga peninsula, military sources said.

Ebdane has come under intense criticism over the embarrassing escape.

Philippine and Singaporean police have also linked Al-Ghozi to a failed JI plot to bomb Western embassies and other targets in Singapore in 2001.