January 18, 2002, AFP, Huge explosives cache found in southern Philippines,

January 18, 2002, AFP, Huge explosives cache found in southern Philippines,
5:27 pm

Philippine authorities have uncovered a huge cache of explosives meant for attacks on Southeast Asian countries thanks to the arrest of an Indonesian man, the military said.

Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, who allegedly has links with Muslim militants based in the Philippines, told police of the cache after his arrest Tuesday.

Following his tip-off, police and troops Thursday raided a suspected terrorist base in the southern city of General Santos and found 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of TNT, 300 detonators and rolls of detonating cord, as well as some 17 M-16 automatic rifles.

"During interrogation, he admitted that he was an Indonesian who temporarily stays here in the Philippines to procure explosives," army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jose Mabanta said.

Al-Ghozi, alias Abu Saad, is an alleged member of the Islamic Jemaah Islamiya group, the police and army intelligence said in a joint statement.

He was "involved in the different bombings in the Philippines, including the December 30, 2000 incident," when five bomb attacks around Manila left 14 people dead and about 100 wounded.

Al-Ghozi told police he had bought explosives from a terrorist cell in the south which were to have been delivered for terrorist attacks in other Southeast Asian countries.

Police said investigators were still determining his possible links to the al-Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Al-Ghozi entered the Philippines sometime between 1996 and 1997 after studying at an Islamic school on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Police said he was recruited there to join the Jemaah Islamiyah "which has tentacles worldwide particularly in Southeast Asian countries," the statement said.

He also has links with a radical faction within the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's main Muslim separatist group which is now engaged in peace talks with Manila.