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Friday, October 06, 2006
Bali bomber's wife, 2 kids captured in Sulu
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Filipino soldiers in the southern Philippine island of Jolo have captured the Indonesian wife and two children of one of Asia's most wanted Jemaah Islamiya leader, blamed for the deadly 2002 Bali and Jakarta bombings.
The Indonesian wife of Dulmatin, who goes by one name, was captured early Wednesday in mountainous Patikul town on the southern island of Jolo with two children, where a US-backed offensive has targeted him and other al-Qaida-linked militants since August 1, three intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Authorities have not directly implicated the wife, identified as Istiada Bt. H. Oemar Sovie alias Amenah Toh, to any terror attacks, but she is currently being interrogated in Zambaonga City for possible immigration violations.
Troops are still pursuing Dulmatin and his companion Umar Patek, both tagged by Jakarta as behind the bombings. The Philippine military said Dulmatin and Patek are being protected by the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group headed by Khadaffy Janjalani.
He said the woman and two of Dulmatin's children were arrested in Jolo's Patikul town in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday. The raid also led to the arrest of an Abu Sayyaf militant Nadzmir Abduraji Amad in the neighboring town of Talipao.
The woman admitted to military interrogators that she is the wife of the 37-year-old Dulmatin, also known as Amar Bin Usman.
Dulmatin's wife also said she sneaked by boat to the southern Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi from Malaysia in August 2003 and was fetched by Azhar, a Jemaah Islamiya militant, and brought to Jolo island to join the group of the wanted terror leader and the Abu Sayyaf.
The arrest of Dulmatin's wife bolsters military reports that the two Indonesian fugitives were still hiding on Jolo with local guerrillas, who also have been linked to Osama bin Laden's network and to a series of deadly bombings, high-profile ransom kidnappings and beheadings, the intelligence officials said.
They said she could be a source of valuable intelligence information.
The Indonesians have been reportedly sighted in recent months with Janjalani, who is also on Washington's most wanted terror list, military officials have said.
Such collaboration among militant groups has worried security officials because it has increased their strength and bomb-making know-how, and expanded their reach.
One collective plot, which authorities believed involved Dulmatin and Patek, the Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman group, was the February 2004 bombing that gutted a ferry near Manila, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist strike, after the 2002 Bali bombings.
The US has offered a $10 million bounty for the capture of Dulmatin, an electronics specialist with training in al-Qa'eda camps in Afghanistan.
He is a senior figure in the Jemaah Islamiya terrorist organization and one of the known leadership of Jemaah Islamiya at large.
He is one of the most important al-Qaeda-trained operatives at large, and, of equal importance, he is one of the four top JI leaders known to have sought safe haven in the Philippines, according to an Asian terror expert, Zachary Abusa.
He fled to Mindanao soon after the August 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta. There, he is one of four top JI leaders-including Umar Patek, Zulkifli bin Hir and Abdul Rahman Ayub-who have continued to train members of JI and the Abu Sayyaf group in Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camps in the Philippines, Abusa said. (Sunnex)
(October 6, 2006 issue)
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Nicole trial ends; ruling set Nov. 27