Inside the Manhunt

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The Search Goes On
Tawi Tawi is a small island covered in dense jungle in the far south of the Philippines. It's a smugglers paradise, with weapons coming from the north, rice from Thailand, and illegal immigrants and other goods often hidden in the cargo holds of the hundreds of small boats that ply the tropical waters. Late one night in January, a group of Philippine special forces troops slipped out of their boats and headed through the mangroves on Tawi Tawi's western side. They crept through the thickets and surrounded a cluster of houses in a forest clearing.

The operation was based on a tip-off that a group of high-level terrorists who had been involved in a kidnapping were lurking at a local village. According to Naval Special Operations Lieutenant Christopher Pantaleon, his men surprised a group of armed men who fled, shooting, into a ravine at the back of the village. "They already know that our guys are after them. They have very good escape routes," Pantaleon says. "Two got away and there were two killed. Of the two who got away, one is Dulmatin, we think. He was wounded at the back and in the legs."

A search failed to find a body, but two weeks later a tip-off led the troops to a grave. The Philippine military promptly announced that Dulmatin might have been killed, but Indonesian authorities later announced that DNA tests from the Tawi Tawi corpse did not match samples from Dulmatin's family.

The U.S. military agrees with the ICG's Jones and Collier that Dulmatin is still alive; Jones thinks he has been in contact with associates in Indonesia. The U.S. military is advising and training Phillippine troops, but cannot take part in combat operations. "With our rules of engagement," says one American, "if I saw Dulmatin walking on a beach in front of me there would be almost nothing I could do without Philippine assistance."

For the U.S. serviceman and his comrades, the front line is a nondescript, windowless building on Jolo island, where a live video feed is playing on a giant plasma screen. The pictures show an aerial view of mountains and sea broadcast from a small drone buzzing high in the tropical air. The drone is seeking terrorist targets and is one resource of the network of U.S. troops working with local commanders.

More controversial is the U.S.-funded Rewards for Justice program. Collier suggests the money and kudos for captors are complicating the hunt. "People jump the gun," he says. "There's a degree of competition among the various services to grab the headlines, and all of this is worsened by the Rewards for Justice program." Some military sources say the program has seen certain commanders refusing to share information in the hope of catching the terrorists by themselves. U.S. State Department officials in the Philippines say those claims are false and point to successful cases such as the $5 million paid to an informant who helped them kill Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddy Janjalani in 2006.

In Indonesia the hunt is more subtle. The intelligence service and the police's Detachment 88 rely on electronic and cell-phone surveillance for information about the suspects' whereabouts. The Australian Federal Police have been working closely with the Indonesian police since the start of the Bali terror investigation, but they refuse to detail their involvement.

Detachment 88 has had some success against the terrorists, killing Doctor Azahari, one of Noordin's close associates and a fellow bomb-maker. In 2006, the unit surrounded a house in Wonosobo, in central Java. The occupants fought back, and at the end of the gun battle two were dead and one was arrested. One of those killed was suspected of being Top's right-hand man, and the home had recently been used by the fugitive. Says Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the counterterrorism desk at the Indonesian Ministry of Politics and Security Affairs: "We are not frustrated and we are still eager to get [Noordin]. But the police are being very careful not to make mistakes."

Jones agrees the police are lifting their game in the hunt for Noordin. "I think there were points in 2003 and 2004 where they could have been more professional," she says, "but I don't think you can complain of incompetence recently." Zulkarnaen, however, is a different matter. "I don't even think the police are looking that hard for him," says Jones. "He's not considered likely to engage [in terrorist activity]. The people in JI are not even sure what he's doing." Indonesian police bristle at the suggestion that they have pulled back from pursuing Zulkarnaen. "We still have some people who are working very hard," says Pastika. "I trust those people."

In Bali the Western tourists in shorts and T shirts are once again spilling drunkenly on to the streets around Kuta's thumping nightclubs. Only a few of the bars still boast security in the form of a bored policeman toting a machine-gun. The revelers are oblivious to the fact that fugitives like Noordin are still on the loose, but the survivors of the bombings and those who lost relatives have not forgotten. "I hate them. If they are still free, I'm very worried that there could be a third bomb in Bali," says local resident Ni Putu Prihana Dewi, a cashier who was working in the Sari Club that terrible night and bears a 20-cm burn scar along her forearm. Sydney man Louie Zervos, whose sister and two cousins died in the blasts, is blunt. "It's disgusting. Everything is in the too-hard basket," he says. "I wish Australia had invaded Indonesia and got [the terrorists] themselves."

Pastika, who is now running for governor of Bali, has faith in the investigation. "The reason they have escaped for so long is they are lucky," he says. "Sometimes you can do everything — the investigation, the forensics and the hard work — but they escape. But I'm very sure it is just a matter of time." In an interview in prison, Bali bomber Imam Samudra warned that there will be further atrocities if he and his associates are executed. Catching the remaining bombers may indeed be just a matter of time, but time may be running out.

Jason Tedjasukmana/Jakarta And Arlyn Dela Cruz/Manila