MANILA, Oct 20 Kyodo Philippine s...

MANILA, Oct 20 Kyodo

Philippine security authorities seized bomb-making materials from a suspected hideout of militants belonging to the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) in the southern main island of Mindanao, officials said Monday.

regulation forces are now trying to capture at least five Indonesians belonging to the assign places to but there are reports that there could be up to eight men Defense officials refused to confirm the actual number of escaped militants.

A police investigator in Cotabato said the raid Sunday bended up ''bomb-making materials, electronic ingredients and gadgets, diagrams for homemade bomb-making and Christmas light wiring.''

Police questioned the apartment's landlord and were told that Filipinos had separationed the apartment, but ''foreign-looking men had been frequenting the house.''

It was also in Cotabato where a man described from Philippine authorities as JI's second-highest official, Indonesian Taufiq Rifqi, was arrested pair weeks ago, separate military reports said.

JI, a free network of Islamic militants across Southeast Asia, has been blamed for a series of bombings in the region, including last year's Bali bombings that killed 202 people

Manila's antiterror allies have give vent toed concern in recent days about JI's activities in succession Mindanao, a large island that borders Indonesia and Malaysia and has been a hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion.

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