Troops came within reach of Indonesian Dulmatin, officials say

MANILA (AP) - Philippine troops came within reach of a top Indonesian terror suspect during a raid on a rebel safe house on a southern island but failed to recognize him, allowing him to escape, military officials said Tuesday.

Marines, navy SEALS and police special forces seized the four children of Dulmatin, who goes by one name, during the pre-dawn raid in May on remote Simunol island in the country's southernmost province of Tawi Tawi, the military said.

Accounts by military officials of that encounter with Dulmatin, who has been implicated in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people in Indonesia's Bali island, vary slightly.

Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said unarmed Dulmatin was held along with some villagers near the house, which the troops raided, but they allowed him and the others to go thinking they were innocent bystanders.

"I was told he was held briefly but they did not recognize him at the time," Dolorfino said.

A security official said the assault team was shown a months-old picture of Dulmatin but said he had lost considerable weight and looked different.

The assault team learned of the near-encounter from the same civilian informant who tipped them off about the whereabouts of the militant and his children, said the official, who had knowledge of the operations and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

However, a marine officer said that Dulmatin was not held by troops at any time and that he pretended to be an onlooker, watching as government troops milled around his safe house after the assault.

Dulmatin's children later told investigators that their father bid them goodbye and left the house a few hours before the assault, apparently sensing the approaching raid, according to the marine officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Dulmatin's children have been deported to Indonesia to rejoin their mother and two siblings, who were found by government troops on nearby Jolo island in October last year then sent back to Indonesia a month later, officials said.

Dolorfino said the incident showed government forces were closing in on Dulmatin because of increased cooperation from Muslim communities. Dulmatin and another Indonesian terror suspect, Umar Patek, were still being hunted in the southern Mindanao region, he said.

Dulmatin and Patek were believed to have fled to the southern Philippines in 2003 to escape a massive Indonesian manhunt after they were linked to the 2002 Bali bombings. They were believed to have been key operatives of the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah militant group at least until 2003 but their current group affiliations are unclear.

Washington has offered a US$10 million (?7 million) reward for the capture or killing of Dulmatin, an expert bomb-maker who has been identified by his wife as Ammar Usman, a militant from Indonesia's Petarukan region.