Manila checking reports Bali bomb suspect wounded

MANILA, Aug 16 (Reuters) The Philippines is checking reports a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings was wounded in a clash with troops earlier this month, the head of the Philippine military said today.

General Hermogenes Esperon said there were reports Indonesian militant Dulmatin had been wounded in a clash on the southern island of Jolo on August 9, when the military lost 26 soldiers in fighting with separatist groups.

''We are not saying it is indeed confirmed,'' General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters.

''The troops operating there, they described something like this, so the account of the troops plus a report from the civilian population (is being verified). We don't know in what part of his body he was hit.'' Philippine troops, backed by US equipment and advisors, have been battling members of various Muslim separatist groups on Jolo and nearby Basilan in recent weeks. Nearly 80 people have been killed, more than half of them soldiers.

Dulmatin has a 10 million dollar bounty on his head from the US State Department. In May, the military said he had slipped out of Jolo.

The government has blamed the recent fighting in Jolo on Abu Sayyaf, the most radical of four Muslim rebel groups in the largely Catholic country.

Abu Sayyaf has links to regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah and is believed to be sheltering Dulmatin and another JI member, Umar Patek, who are key suspects for the 2002 bombing of the Indonesian resort island that killed more than 200 people.

Esperon indicated the verification process could take a long time. He said it took months for the military to confirm that Khaddafy Janjalani, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf, had been killed following rumours he was wounded in September.

Major-General Ruben Rafael, army commander on Jolo, said one of Abu Sayyaf's main fighters, Umbra Jundail -- or Dr Abu Pula as he was more widely known -- had been wounded in the clash on Aug 9.

The Philippines, which is trying to keep the peace with more secular Muslim separatist groups, has vowed to destroy the Abu Sayyaf.

But due to family ties on Jolo and the neighbouring island of Basilan there are close links between the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro National Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with Manila in 1996, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is meant to be in peace talks.

Members of the MNLF were involved in the clashes on Jolo amid frustration over the implementation of the 1996 deal.

Last month, the MILF killed 14 Marines in an ambush on Basilan.

Ten of the soldiers were beheaded but the MILF has denied mutilating the men.

Reuters RJ RS1148