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Monday, Oct. 20, 2003

No one was arrested during the raid Sunday in southern Cotabato city, police and military spokesmen said.

Authorities found wires, a dismantled battery charger and improvised timing devices among the bomb-making equipment. They also seized documents referring to the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, 32 pamphlets in Indonesia's Bahasa language on bomb-making, and a manual on bioterrorism, military spokesman Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia told The Associated Press.

Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked group, has been blamed for last year's Bali bombings that killed 202 people and an Aug. 5 attack on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people.

The raid also turned up a chemical substance that was being analyzed, Garcia said. He refused to speculate on the what the substance might be. "we don't even know if it's talcum powder." He cautioned that "it does not mean that they are engaged in bioterrorism."

Local media, however, reported that the chemicals contained the tetanus virus.

Supt. Felipe Napoles of the Cotabato police said the suspected chemicals were inside a gas tank. Napoles said an American chemist took part in the raid. It wasn't immediately clear if the chemist was part of U.S. counterterrorism assistance to the Philippine government.

Officials said they did not know the identities of the people who lived in the house.

Army Col. Felipe Tabas, head of a regional task force, cited intelligence reports that about eight Jemaah suspects were seen two or three weeks ago in the city before leaving, allegedly to conduct training in bomb-making in a village near the boundary of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces, close to Camp Bushra of Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The southern Philippines rebel group has denied any links to terrorists.

© 2003 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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