'Al-Qaeda, JI funded terror ops in Philippines' MANILA - Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah terror suspects in US custody have told interrogators that they financed operations in the Philippines through a money trail that has been uncovered with the recent arrest of a local militant, a government report said.
Hambali, an Indonesian whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, the suspected operations chief for the South-east Asian terror group JI captured last August in Thailand, disclosed that about US$25,000 was sent to a terror cell in the Philippines last year through a man identified only as Zulkipli, according to the report.
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Al-Qaida's operations chief, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the suspected architects of the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, also told interrogators that his group has funnelled funds for terrorist operations in South-east Asia through JI, the report said.
According to the Philippine government report, Zulkipli asked a Filipino accomplice who worked as a moneychanger, Jordan Abdullah, to convert the dollars into pesos, the local currency. The money was deposited in Abdullah's local bank account last July and some was later transferred to Zulkipli's bank account.
In the following weeks, some of the money was given to a JI bomb expert identified only as Marwan. Another chunk was used to buy a safe house in southern Cotabato city, where Zulkipli stayed. The money was also used for Abdullah's foreign currency exchange business, the report said.
Abdullah was arrested April 3 in Cotabato, about 880km south of Manila, and has provided details that helped Philippine authorities unravel JI's money trail and the bank accounts used to hide funds intended for attacks and training, officials said.
The extent of the operations funded by Al-Qaeda and JI were not immediately clear but authorities were to discuss the matter in a news conference later on Thursday.
Hambali and Mohammed, who was captured in Pakistan last March, are both in US custody in undisclosed locations. -- AP
