JI bomber’s wife falls in Sulu

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Military intelligence agents have captured a woman believed to be the wife of one of two foreign fugitives tagged as masterminds of the bombings in Bali, Indonesia in 2002, military sources disclosed here yesterday.

Intelligence agents arrested Indonesian Istiada Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Tohe, in Barangay Tanum in Patikul, Sulu on Wednesday. She was caught with her two daughters whose names were not revealed.

Sovie is suspected to be the wife of terrorist Dulmatin, who uses one name. He and fellow Indonesian Umar Patek, both wanted for the October 2002 Bali bombings where 202 people died, have sought refuge in Sulu and have linked up with the group of Abu Sayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani.

Abu Sayyaf members and the Indonesian terrorists have been on the run since the military launched "Oplan Ultimatum," an offensive against the guerrillas, on Aug. 1 in Sulu.

Sources said that initial interrogation of Sovie revealed that she was one of the women used by the Abu Sayyaf and Indonesians belonging to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) as courier of supplies.

"It appeared that the woman was one of the logistics runners of the JI and Abu Sayyaf," the source said.

The captured suspect has been placed under tactical interrogation.

Sovie and her children were brought to the Military Intelligence Group-9 headquarters at the Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) in Zamboanga City.

Sources said the three were later brought to Manila on board a private aircraft and she is now at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Government agents are now checking records at the Bureau of Immigration to find out how she entered the country.

Wesmincom officials refused to confirm the report of the arrest of Dulmatin’s wife.

"From our end we cannot confirm the information yet neither have we had reports to that effect," said Maj. Eugene Batara, Wesmincom spokesman. Military sources, however, confirmed the arrest of Sovie.

"The information regarding the arrest may have been withheld as security forces try to get more information (from her) that will help the military troops in their hunt against the terrorist leaders," the source said.

Sources said that the presence of the wife of Dulmatin proved that the Indonesian terrorists are being protected by Janjalani in Sulu.

Some of the Marine commandos who successfully penetrated the position of the terrorists during their mission last Sept. 4 in the jungles of Patikul, Sulu, also confirmed the presence of women in the main guerrilla group.

"We heard voices of women when we initiated a simultaneous grenade attack," a soldier said.

Authorities have not directly implicated Dulmatin’s wife to any terror attacks, but she is being held for possible immigration violations. The military expects to get more valuable information from her.

The US has offered a reward of $10 million for Dulmatin, an alleged bomb expert of the JI, the Indonesia-based terror group.

Government troops raided a house where they found Dulmatin’s wife and children, and the wife told authorities she had four other children who were not with her.

The Indonesians have reportedly been sighted in recent months with Janjalani, who is also on Washington’s most wanted terror list, military officials said.

Such collaboration among militant groups has worried security officials because it has increased their strength and bomb-making know-how, and expanded their reach.

Militants from the Rajah Solaiman movement, a Manila-based group of Christian converts to Islam, were providing help with their familiarity of the capital and outlying urban regions, officials said.

One collective plot, which authorities believed involved Dulmatin and Patek, the Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman group, was the February 2004 bombing that gutted the SuperFerry 14 off Corregidor, killing 116 people in Southeast Asia‘s second-worst terrorist strike, after the 2002 Bali bombings.

Washington has deployed troops to Mindanao since 2002 to arm and provide training to Filipino troops battling the militants. American troops also have provided high-tech assistance to track down Indonesian and Filipino militants on Jolo.

Meanwhile, Army Rangers captured in Talipao, Sulu, an Abu Sayyaf bandit who is allegedly one of the suspects in the kidnapping of foreign tourists from the Sipadan Island resort in Malaysia in April 2000.

Wesmincom spokesman Batara said Alvarez Edris, alias Nadzmir Abduraji Amad, 22, was apprehended by members of the 5th Scout Range Company in Barangay Bandang in Talipao.

Batara said that Edris had been identified as one of the Abu Sayyaf bandits that raided the Sipadan resort.

Abu Sayyaf members led by Ghalib Andang, alias Commander Robot, Nadzmi Saabtula alias Commander Global, and Mujib Susukan abducted 21 hostages, mostly Europeans, and a Filipino at the dive resort in Sipadan Island in Malaysia. The bandits took the hostages in Sulu. The hostages were released in several batches after the payment of ransom after five months of negotiations. — With Jaime Laude