Philippines says may have found Bali bomber's body

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine military has exhumed whatit believes is the body of Dulmatin, an Indonesian militantwanted for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed over 200 people.

"His body was recovered yesterday afternoon," Major GeneralBen Dolorfino, the marine commandant, said on Tuesday. "We areconducting DNA tests to confirm."

The tests, which will be carried out by the U.S. FederalBureau of Investigation, will take around two weeks tocomplete. Washington has offered a $10 million (5.2 millionpound) bounty for Dulmatin, a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah(JI).

JI is a Southeast Asian Islamic militant network blamed fora number of attacks, including the Bali blasts.

Dolorfino said an informant led them to the body, which wasdug up in Tawi-tawi, the southernmost tip of the Philippinearchipelago.

"Based on the description of the informant, he sufferedgunshots in the head, chest and right foot," Dolorfino said.

Dulmatin, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, haseluded the Philippine military and its U.S. advisers for years,although security forces found his wife in 2006 and theirchildren the following year in a rebel hideout in thePhilippine south. They have since been deported to Indonesia.

If Dulmatin is dead it would be another major blow for JI,which has seen many of its leaders and supporters killed orcaptured by Indonesian security forces.

A handful of JI members are believed to be operating in thesouthern Philippines and on Tuesday the military paraded anIndonesian national it said was a JI operative and part ofDulmatin's group.

General Hermogenes Esperon, the military chief, saidMohamad Baehaqi, alias Latif, was arrested on February 17 andwas linked to bombings in 2006 which killed 20 people.

"He was arrested with two Filipino companions in a Muslimrebel hideout," Esperon said, adding a rifle, a shotgun, apistol, bomb-making materials and notes in Arabic and Bahasawere also seized.

Dulmatin was believed to have fled to the southernPhilippines in 2003 with Umar Patek, another JI member, afterboth were implicated in the Bali blasts, which killed mainlyAustralian tourists holidaying on the resort island.

Dulmatin was reported injured in a clash with the militaryon January 31 when they raided his hideout.

Both Dulmatin and Patek have been working with members ofAbu Sayyaf, a Philippine group responsible for the bombing of aferry close to Manila in 2004 that killed over 100 people inthe Philippines' worst terrorist attack.

Foreign Islamic militants have a history of helping totrain militant Muslims in the southern Philippines, a largelyCatholic country, in bomb-making techniques.

(Additional reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by SanjeevMiglani and Jerry Norton)