Police, military step up intel operations vs JI members

Police and military intelligence agents have stepped up efforts to track down members of Jemaah Islamiyah following reports that the Indonesia-based militant group are plotting to launch more bomb attacks, police sources at Camp Crame told The STAR.

Several key Muslim figures, including those teaching the Islamic faith, are being closely watched, they said. Muslim institutions and enclaves — known to have provided cover to terrorists in the past — are also being monitored.

Police earlier reported that at least a dozen Jemaah Islamiyah operatives are in the country and have already "established" themselves, planning bomb attacks in malls and nightspots.

The report jibed with a US embassy advisory last week, warning of possible terrorist bombings targeting Americans from All Saints Day up to the New Year holiday. It said nightspots in Metro Manila were among public areas at risk.

One police source said a ranking Jemaah Islamiyah operative, whom he refused to identify, made several rounds in Manila and Makati to assess the police security at the Israeli and US embassies a few months ago.

"This explains why the terrorists were only able to explode their bombs on civilian targets and failed to hit their US and Israeli targets here because they were unable to penetrate our security on foreign interests here in Manila," he said.

Police sources said al-Qaeda operatives and their allies in Southeast Asia initially planned to attack US and other western targets in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.

But tight security measures there forced them to shift their sights on Indonesia and the Philippines, both considered as "soft targets."

"Not that we are lax in our security enforcement to protect local and foreign interests, but because these terrorists have found that it was very easy to acquire and move explosives here in and in Jakarta," a ranking police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Last month, police arrested four men and seized 3,000 kilograms (6,614 pounds) of ammonium nitrate the men were unloading without a permit at a warehouse in the town of Lucena in Quezon province, south of Manila.

The substance is an agricultural chemical commonly used as fertilizer but it can also can be used for making explosives. Police said the shipment – consisting of 120 25-kilo sacks of ammonium nitrate – was enough to flatten a city block.

The four suspects denied any terrorist link and said the chemical was meant to be used as fertilizer.

Ammonium nitrate was reportedly used in a deadly car bomb attack on a nightclub district on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last month that killed nearly 200 people. Many of the dead were Australian tourists.

Earlier US reports said Jemaah Islamiyah planned to attack nightspots and entertainment establishments frequented by Americans and western tourists throughout Southeast Asia – and the Bali bombing was part of the plot.

Police have stepped up security in nightspots to thwart possible terrorist attacks following the Bali massacre.