Indonesia to Send Officers to Identify Bombers in Philippines

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia`s government will send officers of the National Counter-terrorism Agency (BNPT) and Foreign Affairs Ministry to the Philippines to help identify suicide bombers, alleged to be Indonesians, who recently committed the Jolo church terror attack.

"The BNPT and Foreign Affairs Ministry are exploring and have confirmed to send officers there to identify (the perpetrators)," Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Wiranto informed the press on Monday.

A statement of Filipino Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano saying that Indonesian suicide bombers behind the Jolo blasts on January 27, was a unilateral statement, Wiranto noted.

"I say that it was unilateral news. The BNPT and Foreign Ministry have checked and are still conducting coordination," he remarked.

Read also: Jakarta Awaits Results of Philippines Bombing Investigation

The Filipino authorities have been investigating the case and probing to identify the perpetrators.

"Several possibilities still exist. Do not rush to say they were Indonesians," he explained.

CNN Philippines reported Interior Secretary Ano as saying on Friday that two Indonesian suicide bombers were behind the twin explosions that left 22 dead in Jolo, Sulu.

"Two foreigners are involved in the bombing, and they were aided by local Abu Sayyaf, who acted as a guide and probably conducted preliminary surveillance prior to the bombing," Ano told CNN Philippines` News Night.

He said the suicide bombers -- a couple -- were sometimes mistaken to be Malaysians but "I`m certain they are Indonesians."

Ano identified the man as a certain Abu Huda, who has been in Sulu Province "for a long time already." He said the wife, whom he did not name, arrived just days before the Jan 27 bombings that rocked Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cathedral. Some 100 people were wounded, CNN Philippines reported.

ANTARA