A nationwide hunt has been ordered in the Philippines today after a top Islamic militant escaped from a prison in Manila.
Ports and airports have also been put on the alert forFathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an Indonesian who is a self-confessed member of Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of radicals that has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
He escaped with two Filipino prisoners who are alsobelieved to be members of a radical Islamic group, the AbuSayyaf.
The trio slipped out before dawn from a specialdetention centre at the national police headquarters, a heavily guarded complex in Manila.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sacked thethree guards assigned to watch al-Ghozi's cell and policeofficials said there were no signs of a forced break-out,suggesting connivance.
The slim, bearded al-Ghozi, who has said he was on amission to wage holy war in Southeast Asia, was serving thesecond year of a 17-year jail term for illegal possession ofexplosives and falsfiying 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 near simultaneous explosions in the capital on that day.