Explosives cache uncovered following arrest of Indonesian

Police said yesterday they were holding an Indonesian believed to be a key member of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, and that his arrest had led to the seizure of a massive amount of explosives in General Santos City.

The 30-year-old Indonesian, identified as Farthur Rohman Al-Ghozi alias Abu Saad, was apprehended in Quiapo on Tuesday and is believed to be linked to a plot to bomb US targets in Singapore.

Initially arrested on suspicion of forging travel documents, he later admitted to buying over a ton of explosives in Balanga City in Bataan last year and storing it in General Santos to ship to other Southeast Asian countries, officials said.

"He was actually planning to leave for Bangkok, Thailand on the day he was arrested," said Senior Superintendent Jaime Caringal, chief of the anti-terrorist Sanlahi Task Force.

On Thursday, police seized a cache of explosives and arrested three Filipinos during a raid in General Santos. Seventeen assault rifles were also confiscated as well as 300 detonators and other ingredients for bomb-making.

Government agents are now investigating possible links between a suspected Jordanian terrorist arrested in Balanga City in December and the suspected terrorists rounded up Wednesday in General Santos City.

Jordanian Hadi Yousef Al-Ghoul was arrested in a raid at his rented apartment in Balanga City. Seized from his possession were hundreds of sticks of dynamite and bomb-making gadgets. Al-Ghoul, reports said, had escaped an anti-terrorism crackdown in Singapore which captured a dozen of his alleged cohorts.

Caringal disclosed that cross-matching is being conducted on dynamite sticks recovered from Al-Ghoul and those from the group of Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi. "So far the only link between Al-Ghoul and Al-Ghozi is their reported close association with the al-Qaeda international terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden," Caringal said

The stockpile of powerful explosives in General Santos City was dug up by local authorities acting on a tip from Singaporean authorities investigating a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist cell in the city-state.

The confiscation of the cache may have thwarted a series of terrorist attacks here and abroad. Caringal identified the targets of the terror network based in Southeast Asian countries as military installations and private companies in the US, American embassies as well as the Australian and British high commissions.

Al-Ghozi, a demolitions expert, is believed to be an explosives trainer of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

In a report, police intelligence director, Chief Superintendent Roberto Delfin said Al-Ghozi admitted participation in the Dec. 30, 2000 simultaneous bombings in Metro Manila that killed 18 people and injured scores of others. — Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude