MANILA, July 23 (Xihua) -- Jemaah Islamiyah (JL) operatives might have a role in the string of deadly bombings that rocked the southern Philippines over the past month, a senior Filipino security official said Thursday.
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said that the security forces are still investigating at least four improvised bomb explosions that killed 12 and injured more than 100 in the insurgency-infested Mindanao region.
Gonzales told Manila-based foreign reporters that the Mindanao bombings are in a common JL fashion, even though the authorities can not confirm the suspects at the moment.
He said bomb experts are sharing information with their Indonesian counterparts to prove connection, if any, with the Mindanao bombings and the Jakarta hotel blasts that killed nine and injured 61 on July 17.
Indonesian police suspected that break-away JL members, led by Noordin Mohammed Top, were the masterminds.
Founded in the early 1990s, the JL is believed to be the anchor of the Al Qaeda network in Southeast Asia and is blamed for a string of terrorist attacks in the region, including the twice bombings in the Indonesian tourist island of Bali in 2002 and 2005.
Gonzales said about 20 to 30 JL operatives have been staying in the southern Philippines for some time, training local militant groups, especially the 300-member Abu Sayyaf, to launch terrorist attacks.
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