The Jakarta Post, 11/14/2006 4:57:13 PM
Wife of Dulmatin names 6 alleged militants hiding in RP
MANILA (AP): The detained wife of a top Indonesian terror suspect hiding in the
southern Philippines has identified six other Asian militants allegedly on the run with
her husband, a police official said Tuesday.
They include four Indonesians, a Singaporean and a Malaysian - all newly trained
members of the Southeast Asian al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group - Dulmatin's
wife, Istiada Binti OemarSovie, told police investigators.
Dulmatin and Umar Patek, Indonesians suspected of plotting the 2002 nightclub
bombings that killed 202 people on Indonesia's Bali island, have been hiding with top
leaders of the local Abu Sayyaf militant group in southern Sulu province, officials said.
Dulmatin's wife "gave us six ot her names of foreign nationals who are presently with
Umar Patek and Dulmatin in Sulu," said Chief Superintendent Romeo Ricardo,
director of the national police intelligence group.
He did not identify them.
Dulmatin's wife was detained on the southern Philippine island of Jolo last month and
was set to be deported to Indonesia when authorities finish questioning her, said
Immigration Bureau intelligence chief Faisal Hussin.
U.S.-backed Philippine troops launched a manhunt for the militants in August.
Ricardo said Dulmatin and Patek could not find potential suicide bombers among
Filipino militants, prompting Patek to try to look for bombers from Indonesia who
would be willing to conduct attacks in the Philippines.
"Based on intelligence reporting around last year ... Umar Patek was communicating
with his contacts in Indonesia asking his contacts to recruit suicide bombers from
among the militants in Indonesia," Ricardo said.
He said that four suspected bombers were arrested in June 2005 in Malaysia's Sabah
state, which borders the southern Philippines, and that several others were arrested
this year. He did not elaborate.
Aside from the militants in the south, Ricardo saidauthorities were monitoring the
presence near Manila of Christian converts to Islam suspected of plotting bomb
attacks. (**)
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