|
A former Muslim militant has identified a body found in a shallow
grave in the southern Philippines as Jemaah Islamiah bomb maker
Dulmatin, a military spokesman said on Thursday.
Dulmatin fled Indonesia shortly after playing a
role in the deadly 2002 Bali bombing in which more than 200 people,
mostly tourists, were killed.
Maj. Eugene Batara said the body found last week
on the island of Tawi-Tawi on the southern tip of the Philippine
archipelago has yet to be formally identified.
He said DNA tests being carried out by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US and the Philippine police
will determine the body’s identification.
Dulmatin is believed to have been killed in a
clash with the military on Tawi-Tawi on January 31.
However, security analysts and Indonesian police
have expressed doubt that it is his body.
Batara said Alfa Moha, a local member of
Filipino militant group Abu Sayyaf, had told them where the body was
buried.
He said Moha met Dulamtin last year shortly
after being recruited by the Abu Sayyaf.
Dulmatin and fellow Jemaah Islamiah member, Umar
Patek, have been hiding in the southern Philippines for the past
five years, protected by the Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for
the worst terror attacks in the nation’s history.
The US government has offered a $10-million
bounty for Dulmatin, a senior Jemaah Islamiah figure.
-- AFP
|
