World | Philippines
Suspect in Bali bomb attacks believed dead
Investigators are seeking to confirm if they can find matches with DNA samples taken from Dulmatin's children, who were picked up during a joint military and police operation in Basilan in 2006 May.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:53 February 20, 2008
Manila: The Indonesian national long wanted for the bombings that killed 200 people in Bali in 2002 was reportedly killed in an encounter in the southern Philippines last January, prompting authorities to run DNA tests on the purported remains, sources said.
Agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) took samples from a corpse believed to be that of Dulmatin, aka Ammar Usman, in a temporary US military facility at the Philippine Southern Command in Zamboanga City yesterday, said Rear Admiral Emilio Marayag, the naval forces commander in Western Mindanao.
Investigators are seeking to confirm if they can find matches with DNA samples taken from Dulmatin's children, who were picked up during a joint military and police operation in Basilan in 2006 May, said Marayag.
The DNA tests would likely take about a week. "Once the body is properly identified, it will be given a decent burial in Zamboanga," said Marayag.
Military Intelligence members had exhumed a corpse that bore wounds in the head, chest, and right foot in Balimbing village, in Panglima Sugala town of Tawi Tawi, on Monday.
The exhumation took place after Alpha Moha, a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), who was arrested last week, claimed Dulmatin had died in an encounter between troops and ASG members in Tawi-Tawi on January 31, said Major General Nelson Allaga, chief of the Armed Forces' Western Mindanao Command.
Dulmatin, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Southeast Asian conduit of the Al Qaida terror network, and Umar Patek, also an Indonesian national, are believed to have trained ASG members in Tawi-Tawi since 2003, intelligence reports said.
$10m reward
The US government had placed a $10-million (Dh36.7-million) reward on Dulmatin's head, besides offering $1 million for Patek's arrest.
The military had earlier claimed that Dulmatin was injured but had escaped during an encounter between Marines and ASG operatives in Panglima Sugala town on January 31.
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