Metro Manila on alert for 9/11 bombings

Security forces have been placed on alert following intelligence reports that two explosives experts from an al-Qaeda-linked group have arrived in Metro Manila to carry out terrorist bombings on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to a confidential government report obtained by The Associated Press, two bomb experts from the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) are now hiding somewhere in the metropolis preparing to carry out the attacks.

The two terrorists belong to a small group of Islamic converts, which has been linked to a number of deadly assaults, including a February 2004 bombing that gutted the SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay and killed 116 people in the country’s worst terrorist attack.

The RSM has worked with other al-Qaeda-linked groups, including the Southeast Asian terror cell Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the extremist Abu Sayyaf, in plotting attacks and undertaking joint terror training in the dense jungles of central Mindanao, according to security officials.

"Numerous reports which suggest the possibility of bombing attacks are the major concerns at present," the report said.

"With the anniversary of the Sept. 11 al-Qaeda attack fast approaching and the developments in Lebanon, sympathetic attacks should not be discounted," it said.

The report did not mention if the two alleged bomb experts are planning to attack a specific target in Metro Manila, but it said the presence of RSM members has led to terrorist assaults in the recent past.

It cited the group’s involvement in last year’s Valentine’s Day bombing of a passenger bus in Makati City that killed four people and wounded more than 60 others.

The Makati City regional trial court sentenced to death Indonesian national Rohmat Abdurrohim and Abu Sayyaf members Abu Khalil Trinidad and Gammal Baharan, who have been accused in the Valentine’s Day bombing.

The three convicted terrorists employed the same method of lying low for four months after entering Metro Manila before carrying out their grisly plans on Feb. 14.

The government also had success in arresting several RSM members, including its leader Ahmad Santos in October, and his alleged second in command, Pio de Vera, in December last year.

Security forces traced their whereabouts following the seizure of 600 kilos of ammonium nitrate and other bomb making materials stored in an apartment rented by the RSM in Quezon City.

Last year, security forces were placed on alert on the lookout for the two JI militants Umar Patek and Dulmatin who managed to slip into the country and were given refuge by Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani.

The US government has offered up to $10 million for the capture of Dulmatin and $1 million for Patek, both tagged for the October 2002 twin bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed more than 200 mostly foreign tourists.

Security officials said two JI militants opted to "lie low" for the moment, owing to the publicity generated by the death verdict on the three terrorists on the Valentine’s Day bombing.

The two Indonesian terrorists have joined Janjalani to train the Abu Sayyaf recruits in terror tactics.

The Abu Sayyaf, in turn, is using the RSM to carry out bombings and other terror attacks, officials said.

US and Australian officials have been concerned by the reported existence of terror training camps in southern Philippines which they said could produce militants that could launch attacks anywhere.

The Abu Sayyaf is allegedly providing protection and assistance to the JI militants in return for training the bandits in handling explosives.

Among the JI militants who admitted training the Abu Sayyaf bandits was Abdurrohim, who was those sentenced to death for the Valentine’s Day bombings.

Abdurrohim admitted that he was among the "graduates" of the terror training camp maintained by the Abu Sayyaf to carry out the Feb. 14 bombing attack.

Intelligence officials said Dulmatin and Patek had planned last year to carry out Bali-type bomb attacks with the help of the RSM in targeting several nightspots in Malate, Manila frequented by foreigners.

The plot, however, did not push through following the arrest of RSM leader Hilarion del Rosario Santos in Zamboanga City.

The military had claimed both Dulmatin and Patek have made arrangements with Janjalani to coordinate efforts to carry out bomb attacks in the country.

Dulmatin, alias Joko Pitono, was also implicated in the March and April 2003 bombings of the Davao International Airport and Sasa Wharf in the city. — With AP