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Multiple Bombings Linked To Osama In Wake Of U.N. Taliban Crackdown
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - Philippine authorities last week revealed that the suspects in the deadly bombings that hit Manila underwent military training in camps located in Afghanistan.
The Philippine's government alleges that the Afghan link could be traced to Osama bin Laden who is holed up in Afghanistan.
Indonesian police also disclosed that bombings that rattled throughout Christmas Eve night in Jakarta and Bandung may also have had an Afghan link, stating that two of the suspects revealed they had training in the Taliban-run country.
The Militant Islam Organization or Militantislam.org, an online Islamist group based in Jakarta told IslamOnline they believe these links are part of an international strategy to push for war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
They say the United States is investigating the existence of a possible link to bin Laden and the bombings against U.S. embassies in Africa almost in the same period when the bombings in both Indonesia and the Philippines were blamed on Afghan trained suspects.
The U.S suspects bin Laden as being involved in bombings in the late 1990s across Africa, the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Currently, the United States has indicted bin Laden in absentia and a case involving him as a chief defendant is underway in the U.S.
The two accused in the Philippines bombings are Filipino Malays, and are said to be members of either the Abu Sayyaf or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Both groups are fighting their own separate battles against the Christian-dominated government in Manila.
The MILF has, however, rejected the idea that it has anything to do with bin Laden. It said it has not had contacts with bin Laden's group, al-Qaeda (the Base), for a long time and has never sent its members to Afghanistan for training in bomb preparation.
In Indonesia, the police have not formally indicated that bin Laden had anything to do with the bombings there.
Police in Manila have also failed to prove any links to Afghanistan, and the only foreigners they have apprehended were Iranians said to be on Interpol's list of "terrorists".
Philippine authorities have, however, said they suspect the bombings in Indonesia and Manila were linked and that foreigners had a hand in them. It also said the possibility that links leading to bin Laden were high, but provided no further details on how this was possible.
The Militant Islam Organization also said that it was strange that in the remote island of Mauritius, south of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, that a series of allegations had linked bin Laden and the Afghans to the Hizbullah organization there and the now disbanded Squadron of Death.
In Port Louis, Mauritius, police are still probing revelations that the Hizbullah and Squadron of Death are linked. They are also investigating whether some Islamists there were provided training in Pakistan, Afghanistan and/or Qatar.
The latest news from the Mauritius indicates that authorities are seriously looking into possible links between bin Laden and the Hizbullah and Squadron of Death.
A press report said the Economic Crime Organization (ECO), the anti-corruption agency in Mauritius, is investigating a United Press of India report that bin Laden's group had used the island nation's offshore banks to launder money.
The Militant Islam group in Jakarta stated to IslamOnline that the recurrence of accusations against the Afghans and bin Laden were an attempt by the U.S. to place further blame on the Saudi billionaire.
The group added that recent voting in the U.N. to increase sanctions against the Tabilan is part of a plot to undermine the Taliban regime and to force them to give up bin Laden.
The United States has so far failed in extraditing bin Laden from Afghanistan.
Other press reports reveal that Indonesian police are also checking possible links with underground Muslim groups in neighboring Malaysia.
At the height of the 1998 economic crisis in Malaysia, the United States urged Malaysians to investigate rumors that bin Laden had investments in Malaysia and was using its offshore banking system to transfer money from Europe to Asia.
Malaysia revealed that bin Laden's group of companies invested heavily in the State of Kedah in both prawn and crab farming.
It also denied that bin Laden's group used its offshore center in Labuan for illegal money transfers.
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