INTELLIGENCE agents are closely monitoring a number of Abu Sayyaf operatives and others linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group holed up in Metro Manila for suicide bombing missions, a ranking military official disclosed yesterday.

"This is a real threat," said Lt. Col. Buenaventura, Armed Forces information chief.

"I don't want to sound alarmist, but the Abu and JI cells here in Metro Manila are capable of conducting bombings as we have experienced before," he said.

"Our report is that they are here in Metro Manila," Pascual added.

The Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), he said, "is monitoring at least one to two Abu-JI cells in Metro Manila. Each cell is composed of at least three to four persons."

Asked if the cells are about to launch suicide bombings, Pascual replied: "That is their objective."

He said the ISAFP is "tracking them" to prevent suicide missions from being carried out.

The JI terrorists are most likely Indonesians, he said.

Authorities earlier confirmed that a certain Dulmatin, an alleged Indonesian JI operative who was among those who plotted the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia, is in central Mindanao along with another alleged JI terrorist, Omar Patek.

Dumatin and Patek are said to be in the company of Abu Sayyaf bandits led by its head, Khadaffy Janjalani.

The latest bomb attack in Bali two weeks ago was blamed on the JI, a regional terror group lined to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror group. JI operatives are known to have undergone training in terrorist camps in Mindanao.

Foreign and local security officials have warned that because the Philippines is active in U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terror, it the JI's secondary target after the United States and the United Kingdom.

Abu Sayyaf operatives, on the other hand, are known to maintain safehouses in Metro Manila as shown in the arrest of its members allegedly involved in the bombings of a SuperFerry ship in Manila Bay and in various areas of Quezon City almost two years ago.

Pascual said that after the Feb. 14, 2004 bombings in Makati, General Santos, Zamboanga and Davao cities, the Abu-JI was unable to launch an attack in Metro Manila. This was because of the continued pressure on JI personalities, he said.

"We have seen in the Valentine's Day bombings that they are sophisticated," Pascual pointed out. "They used cellphones as triggering devices."

Indonesia has warned that as many as 10 JI suicide bombers are in the Philippines waiting to carry out attacks. The Abu Sayyaf and the JI are working closely together, it warned.

There have been reports in recent months about the JI presence in the country
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