Pat Dollard | Young Americans

MANILA, Feb. 19 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The body of an Indonesian militant suspected of being one of the masterminds behind the 2002 Bali bombings has apparently been found in the southern Philippines, a Philippine military official said Tuesday.

Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino of the Philippines Marines said the body believed to be that of Dulmatin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, was unearthed Monday in a remote village in Tawi-Tawi Province.

Dolorfino said Dulmatin, who has been identified as a senior figure in the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist organization, was wounded in a Jan. 31 clash between Philippine troops and Muslim rebels belonging to the group Abu Sayyaf but managed to escape after the clash.

“An informant led us to his grave,” he told reporters.

Quoting the unidentified informant, Dolorfino said the unearthed body has gunshot wounds to the head, chest and right foot. “Based on initial findings, the statement of the witness matched,” he said.

He said a DNA test will be done to determine the identity of the body.

Philippine and Western intelligence authorities believe Dulmatin, an electronics specialist with training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, had been hiding in the Philippines since 2003 after fleeing from Indonesia to escape arrest for the Bali bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly Western holidaymakers.

Dulmatin carries a $10 million bounty from the U.S. government as the Bali bombing also killed seven U.S. citizens.

Both Dulmatin and Umar Patek, another Indonesian involved in the Bali bombings, sought refuge in the areas controlled by the Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaida-linked radical group responsible for a series of bombings and kidnappings in the southern Philippines.

In 2006, the military discovered Dulmatin’s wife in the southern Philippines and the following year they found his children there.

Patek, who has a $1 million bounty on his head, is still at large, and still believed to be hiding in the southern Philippine jungles. He is believed to have served as the assistant for the field coordinator of the Bali bombings.