Soldiers, cops find 4 children of 'JI bomber'

(Updated 11:36 a.m.) Military and police forces seized four children – aged between two and nine years old – of suspected Indonesian bomber Dulmatin in a raid early Friday morning in Simunol Island, Tawi-Tawi province. Elements of the Navy, Marines and National Police arrested the children in Bacung village at 5:30 a.m. The kids, all surnamed Pitono, were aged 2, 5, 7 and 9. Authorities stormed an alleged safehouse of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group and the Jema'ah Islamiyah, which counts Dulmatin among its members. An M-16 rifle was recovered from the scene. Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan, Philippine Marines spokesman, said that, "As of now we don't want to confirm presence of Dulmatin in the area so as not to compromise follow up operations." Caculitan said the four kids will be turned over the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Zamboanga City. Dulmatin is suspected of being among the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed about 200 people. His wife, Istiada BT. H. Oemar Sovie, and two of their sons were arrested last October 5 at Sandah village in Patikul, Sulu for alleged violations of immigration laws. It was reported at that time that she has four other children in Patikul. Police officials in Mindanao had earlier raised suspicions that Dulmatin sought revenge for Sovie's arrest and instigated a string of bomb attacks last October that killed six people and wounded dozens more. In November last year, then Commissioner Alipio Fernandez of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) told dzBB radio that Philippine authorities gave Sovie permission to leave the Philippines for Indonesia. She was reportedly accompanied by senior state prosecutor Leo Dacera, a consul from the Indonesian Embassy and security agents from the BI accompanied Sovie during her departure on board a Singapore Airlines flight from Manila to Jakarta. While in detention at the Mindanao Command military headquarters in Zamboanga City, Sovie received a visit from Indonesian Consul-General Ikon Moch Entjeng and Consul Secretary Bamban Gunawan. She reportedly then relayed her desire to be taken back to Indonesia. - GMANews.TV