Dulmatin Child Tries To Flee From RP Military Hospital

A Filipino soldier restrains one of four children of Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya bomber, Dulmatin, on Friday 11 May 2007, she she tries to flee from a military hospital in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines. Troops raided a hideout of Jemaah Islamiya on Tawi-Tawi island near Sabah, Malaysia and found the children, ages 2, 5, 7 and 9. Two Filipino women who acted as guardians of the children are currently being investigated by the military. Troops are tracking down Dulmatin. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 11 May) – One of four children of Jemaah Islamiya bomber Dulmatin tried to flee Friday from a military hospital in Zamboanga City after breaking down while undergoing a medical check-up.

The children - one boy and three girls ages 2, 5, 7 and 9 - were take into military custody after soldiers and policemen raided Friday a hideout of Jemaah Islamiya in the southern island of Tawi-Tawi near the Sabah, Malaysia border.

Two Filipino women who acted as guardians of the children are currently being investigated by the military.

The children arrived in Zamboanga City onboard a small Philippine military plane from Tawi-Tawi and taken to a hospital inside the tightly guarded Edwin Andrews Air Base.

The children broke down in tears, after they saw armed soldiers around them and one of them, the eldest, tried to flee after she failed to find her adult companion.

One Filipino intelligence operative restrained her.

A local army spokesman, Lt. Mike Rayman, said the children would be handed over to the Bureau of Immigration in Manila. “We will hand over the children to the Bureau of Immigration in Manila after their medical check up in Zamboanga,” he said.

Rayman said the children were also fed with hamburgers and fresh milk.

The children were previously thought to be hiding with the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo island, where Dulmatin’s wife, Istiada Bt. H. Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Toha, and her two children had been arrested in October last year.

Dulmatin, also known as Amar Bin Usman, is one of several Indonesian terrorists, including Umar Patek, hiding in Jolo island with the Abu Sayyaf. Dulmatin and Patek are wanted for the October 2002 bombings in the resort Indonesian island of Bali in which 202 mostly foreign tourists were killed.

The Jemaah Islamiya is also believed as 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 people. One of the bombs exploded at an open square less than a hundred meters from the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. 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. (With reports from Chris Navarra and Juan Magtanggol)

Breaking News: Four Children Of Jemaah Islamiya Bomber Now In Philippine Custody

ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 11 May) – The Philippine military on Friday said it has in custody four children of Jemaah Islamiya bomber Dulmatin, tagged as behind the deadly Bali bombing in 2002.

Filipino soldiers tracked down the children in the southern island of Tawi-Tawi near the Sabah border. “We have in custody the four children of Dulmatin,” a regional army spokesman Maj. Eugene Batara told the independent regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

He did not say whether more people had been arrested or if the children or their guardians were planning to escape to Sabah.

The children were previously thought to be hiding with the Abu Sayyaf in Jolo island, where Dulmatin’s wife, Istiada Bt. H. Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Toha, and her two children had been arrested in October last year.

It was unknown how the soldiers tracked down the children.

Dulmatin, also known as Amar Bin Usman, is one of several Indonesian terrorists, including Umar Patek, hiding in Jolo island with the Abu Sayyaf. Dulmatin and Patek are wanted for the October 2002 bombings in the resort Indonesian island of Bali in which 202 mostly foreign tourists were killed.

The Jemaah Islamiya is also believed as 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 people. One of the bombs exploded at an open square less than a hundred meters from the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. 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.

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, according to an Asian terror expert, Zachary Abusa.

In 2005, Dulmatin and Umar Patek ordered Abdullah Sonata, a JI operative in Central Java who was arrested in connection 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.

In January, Filipino soldiers killed an Indonesian Jemaah Islamiya militant, Gufran, and five other Filipino Abu Sayyaf members in a clash at sea off Tawi-Tawi while trying to escape to Sabah. (Mindanao Examiner)

JI, MILF Tagged As Behind North Cotabato Bombing

NORTH COTABATO (Caloy Bautista / 11 Oct) - The series of bombings in Central Mindanao which killed seven and wounded 33 civilians Oct. 10 and 11 was the handiwork of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya and implemented by elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, according to North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel F. Pinol.

The bombing run started Tuesday morning with an explosion that rocked Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province resulting in one death and three injuries.

Another bomb exploded at around 8 p.m. on Tuesday in front of the Makilala municipal gymnasium killing six and wounding 30 civilians. A third explosion rocked Cotabato City on Wednesday morning.

The military earlier said that two women were killed and four others wounded in the blast in Tacurong and that police claimed as many as 12 people had died in Makilala bombing.

Two unexploded 81mm mortars, rigged to a cellular phone, were also recovered by authorities Wednesday morning, in front of the Makilala municipal building.

The cell phone which was designed to detonate the bomb proved to be the source of information as it contained missed calls and messages from numbers identified to be used by MILF 105th base sub-commander Basit Usman.

"The cell phone that was recovered in the unexploded bomb proved to be a rich trove of information that clearly identified the people who implemented the series of bombings in Central Mindanao yesterday and early today," Gov. Pinol said.

Gov. Pinol said orders for the bombings came from Indonesian terrorist Dulmatin in retaliation for the arrest of his wife, Istiada, in Jolo on October 3.

The operation was implemented by elements of the MILF led by Usman following the transfer of funds to finance the operation from Zamboanga City last week.

"The MILF now cannot wash their hands and simply say they know nothing of the bombing that killed and injured my people," Gov. Pinol said.

He said he will formally file a protest against the MILF for violation of the ceasefire agreement.

"Let the MILF come clean and they can only do that if they turn over to the authorities the people behind the series of bombings, especially Basit Usman."

The local police said it would file criminal charges against Usman for his involvement in the Makilala bombing. (Mindanao Examiner)