Saturday, October 07, 2006
Military confirms arrest of Bali bomber's wife in Sulu
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Military officials on Friday confirmed the arrest of the Indonesian wife of a wanted Jemaah Islamiya bomber, Dulmatin, in a raid on a terrorist hideout in Sulu province.
"We are confirming the arrest of the woman, Istiada Bt. H. Oemar Sovie alias Amenah Toha, who is Dulmatin's wife. She admitted to be the wife of the terrorist leader Dulmatin, and she is being interrogated in Zamboanga City. Troops are still tracking down Dulmatin on the island (Sulu)," Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said by phone from Manila.
He said the woman was arrested in Sulu's Patikul town in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday. The raid also led to the arrest of Abu Sayyaf militant Nadzmir Abduraji Amad in the neighboring town of Talipao.
Military investigators said they are determining the possible connections of the women with the Southeast Asian regional terror network Jemaah Islamiya and with the ragtag local Abu Sayyaf group.
Bacarro said in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, however, that the only case that has been established so far against Istiada is violation of the country's immigration laws.
He said Filipino soldiers captured the woman who was with her two children in a raid that originally targeted Dulmatin. "Our operation against Dulmatin and the other terrorists will continue until they are captured," Bacarro said.
Security forces are also pursuing Dulmatin's companion, Umar Patek -- a Malaysian JI member, and leaders of the local terror group, the Abu Sayyaf, headed by Khadaffy Janjalani.
Bacarro said the woman is being investigated whether she had a role in Dulmatin's terror activities. Both Dulmatin and Patek were tagged by Jakarta as behind the 2002 Bali bombings. Dulmatin is one of Asia's most wanted Jemaah Islamiya leaders.
He said 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 that 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.
"Definitely, she made mention that Dulmatin and Patek are still in Patikul, Sulu," said Bacarro. But he added she was not specific on whether the two were still in the company of Janjalani or if her husband had been injured in a skirmish with Marine soldiers last month.
Bacarro said they are also holding the woman's kids because she requested that they remain with her while she is being investigated.
The Jemaah Islamiya is also believed to be behind the 2004 bombing of a Filipino ferry off Manila Bay that killed 116 people -- the second-worst terrorist attack in Southeast Asia after the 2002 Bali bombs.
The group was largely blamed by Philippine authorities in a series of bombings in Manila in December 2000 that killed 22 and wounded more than 100 others. One of the bombs exploded at an open square less than a hundred meters from the US Embassy.
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 is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the bombings of two night clubs in Bali, which killed 202 people, mostly Australians, including seven US citizens.
Dulmatin fled to Mindanao in the southern Philippines 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 trained members of JI and the Abu Sayyaf group in Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) camps in the Philippines, said Zachary Abusa, an Asian terror expert.
In 2005, Dulmatin and Umar Patek ordered Abdullah Sonata, a JI operative in Central Java who was arrested in conjunction with the September 4, 2004 Australian Embassy bombing, to dispatch additional JI members to Mindanao for training. He has also called for JI suicide bombers to be sent to the Philippines for operations.
Abusa said Dulmatin, along with Zulkarnaen and Abu Rusdan, was designated for involvement in terrorism by the US Department of the Treasury in April, and placed on the UN's 1267 Committee for terrorist financing in early 2005. (Sunnex/With VR)
(October 7, 2006 issue)
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3 of 4 accused meted 20 to 40 years