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| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian bombs coming from the Philippines |
| 2005-09-10 |
| Bomb material used in many militant attacks in Indonesia may have been sourced from the turbulent southern Philippines, a senior Philippine police intelligence official said yesterday. The official, who declined to be named, said intercepted email exchanges between militants indicated that a shipment of high explosives had been sent early this year to Indonesia from the Philippine island of Mindanao. The southern Philippines has faced a separatist Muslim rebellion for the past 40 years. âThe militants had successfully purchased materials for bombs to be used in Indonesian targets,â the intelligence official said, citing a classified security report prepared last April. The report summarised email exchanges between suspected Indonesian militant leader, Dulmatin, who has been hiding on Mindanao since April, 2003, and other suspected militants. The emails, translated from Bahasa and Arabic into English, were shared by Indonesian intelligence with their Philippine counterparts, said the official. Dulmatin, a key suspect in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people in October, 2002, is believed to be working closely with Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels. Philippine intelligence officials believe moribund mining and construction companies in the southern Philippines may be the source of explosives bought by the Indonesian militants. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |