Islamic militant escapes from prison

THE Philippines ordered a nationwide manhunt on Monday after one of the region’s top Islamic militants escaped from a high-security prison in Manila, apparently with the connivance of his guards.

Ports and airports have also been put on the alert for Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian who is a self-confessed member of Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of radicals which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

He escaped with two Filipino prisoners, who are believed to be members of another radical Islamic group, the Abu Sayyaf.

They slipped out before dawn from a special detention centre at the national police headquarters, a heavily guarded complex in Manila.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sacked the three guards assigned to watch al-Ghozi's cell, and police officials said there were no signs of a forced break-out, suggesting connivance.

"This is an incident that is very unfortunate," presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters. "The president intends to get to the bottom of this and see to it that those responsible are appropriately sanctioned."

The slim, bearded al-Ghozi, who has said he was on a mission to wage holy war in Southeast Asia, was serving the second year of a 17-year jail term for illegal possession of explosives and falsifying travel papers.

His escape occurred a week after he was also charged with murder for the deaths of 12 people in the bombing of a Manila commuter train in December 2000 one of a series of explosions in the capital that day.

"The escape happened at approximately three o'clock this morning," Bunye said, adding that Arroyo had personally ordered a massive manhunt for the fugitives.

Al-Ghozi is regarded as a key member of Jemaah Islamiah, which has been blamed for the bomb attacks in Bali last October in which more than 200 people, many of them Western tourists, were killed.