Philippine police on Monday arrested a Muslim rebel who was allegedly trained in bomb-making by the al-Qaida-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, officials said. Blah Platon, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was carrying a homemade bomb on a motorcycle when police intercepted him before dawn at a checkpoint on a highway in Tacurong town, 950 kilometers (590 miles) southeast of Manila, Chief Superintendent German Doria said. "This man is a known bomb expert trained by Jemaah Islamiyah," said Doria, the regional police chief. "He knows how to assemble improvised bombs." Platon also was wanted for kidnapping and carried a 175,000 peso (US$3,500; €2,720) bounty on his head. Doria said authorities were investigating Platon's links to bomb attacks in the southern Philippines, including an Oct. 10 bombing in Makilala town in North Cotabato province that killed six people and wounded 29.
Last month, police filed murder charges against two top Indonesian terror suspects - Dulmatin and Umar Patek - and 18 Filipino rebels. Dulmatin and Patek — believed to be hiding in the southern Mindanao region - have been blamed for some of Southeast Asia's worst terrorist attacks, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. MILF chairman Al Haj Murad was initially included in the complaint but the prosecutor later dropped him from the list because of a lack of evidence. The rebels had warned the murder charges might scuttle peace talks.