Seized bomb parts link Vietnamese terror group

The bomb parts found in the rented townhouse of three international terrorists in San Juan Friday, are similar to those used in homemade bombs recovered at the Vietnamese Embassy compound in Thailand and London in the past two years, police said yesterday.

This developed as the Philippine National Police (PNP) is coordinating with the embassies here of Vietnam, Thailand and Japan to gather additional evidence against the suspects, Vo Van Duc, 41; Makoto Ito, 62, and Huynh Thuan Ngoc, 42.

Duc, a Vietnamese-American is said to have operated terrorist cells in Vietnam and the Philippines and is a member of the Free Vietnam Revolutionary Group, the military arm of the Government of Free Vietnam, a worldwide organization to liberate Vietnam from communist rule. Ito is Japanese while Ngoc is Swiss-Vietnamese.

The trio allegedly planned to bomb the Vietnamese Embassy, "on or before Sunday," Vietnam’s National Day.

Right after their arrest at Unit 17 of the Sylvana Townhomes on P. Guevarra Street in Barangay Sta. Lucia in San Juan, Duc, Ito and Ngoc were brought to the police hospital in Camp Crame for a thorough medical check-up.

The three terrorists are presently undergoing tactical interrogation at the Intelligence Group (IG) of the PNP at Camp Crame.

The San Juan raid yielded bomb-making materials like ammonium nitrate, wires with improvised blasting caps, detonating cord, batteries and cellular phones.

Citing Interpol reports, a bomb expert from Camp Crame said the components of the homemade bombs recovered at the Vietnamese embassies in Thailand and London are the same as those found in San Juan. Two of the common characteristics the bomb experts pointed out are the homemade bombs were remote-controlled and a cellphone was used as the triggering device.

In June 19 last year, the police in Thailand recovered two homemade bombs in a black backpack at the gate of the Vietnamese Embassy. However, the "detonators" attached to the two devices were not real. The bombs also contained no explosives. At the very worst, the devices could have caused a fire if ignited by a call to the cellphone, the local police said. – Non Alquitran