Philippines says bomb suspect caught in Indonesia

MANILA, Oct 6 (Reuters) An Indonesian Muslim militant suspected in several bombings on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao last year was arrested in a mainly Christian city in eastern Indonesia, Philippine police officials said today.

German Doria, police chief of Mindanao's central region, said he was informed by counterparts in Indonesia's Manado area, in northern Sulawesi, about the arrest of Elmer Abram, alias Elmer Emran.

Security officials in the Philippines said Abram was believed to be a member of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a Southeast Asian network of Muslim militants fighting to set up a pan-Islamic state in the region.

''We're awaiting further word from the Indonesian police on how and when the suspect would be sent back to stand trial in the Philippines,'' Doria told reporters, giving credit to growing cooperation between the police forces of the two countries.

General Hermogenes Esperon, the Philippines' military chief of staff, said up to 40 JI members have been hiding in the south since 2003, when the main suspects in the October 2002 bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali fled to Mindanao.

Esperon said most of the JI members were being sheltered by Abu Sayyaf, a small but violent group of Philippine militants blamed for the country's worst terror attack, the 2004 bombing of a ferry near Manila that killed 100 people.

In February 2005, members of Abu Sayyaf and a group of converts to Islam are accused of cooperating with JI to set off bombs simultaneously in Manila and two southern cities, General Santos and Davao, killing 14 people.

About 18 Philippine militants, including two in army custody, believed to be involved in those attacks were sentenced to death by a local court early this year.

REUTERS SHB VV1819