The Jakarta Post, 10/5/2005 12:29:44 PM
Deadly Bali attacks revive concerns over southern Philippine
terror sanctuaries
MANILA (AP): As Southeast Asia pondered its security after the second deadly
terrorist blow to Indonesia's Bali resort island, nagging concerns surfaced again over
whether the southern Philippines has become the region's breeding ground for
radicals.
After most of al-Qaeda network's camps in Afghanistan were taken out by U.S.-led
forces in late 2001, the Philippines' Mindanao region has become a key training area
for Southeast Asian militants, including those blamed for the first Bali carnage three
years ago that killed 202 people, according tosecurity officials and confidential
documents.
Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top - who Indonesian police say
may have masterminded Saturday's suicide bombings in Bali - are believed to have
trained or once taken refuge in Mindanao, a vast tropical sprawl with largely
unguardedjungle-clad islands, mountains and marshes. Muslim separatist guerrillas
hold sway in far-flung villages.
Philippine police officials planned to show pictures of the recovered heads of three
suspected suicide bombers to captured Jamaah Islamiyah militants to check if last
weekend's attackers belonged to the al-Qaeda-linked group or if they trained in
Mindanao - an almost automatic suspicion that's not withoutbasis.
In a sarcastic editorial cartoon on Tuesday, the widely circulated Philippine Star
newspaper featured an Islamic militant holding two lit bombs and wearing a shirt
labeled "Bali bomber" and a button that read "proudly RP-trained." RP is shorthand for
Republic of the Philippines. (**)
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