MANILA, Dec 6 (Reuters) The U S embassy temporarily shut its doors today after a security threat, with Philippine police warning of potential suicide bombings by Jemaah Islamiah, a regional network of militants linked to al Qaeda.
The embassy did not specify the "plausible threat information" in a statement on its Web site - http://manila.usembassy.gov.
Television channel ANC quoted a guard at the embassy as saying a mobile phone text message was received yesterday night from someone named "Evita" threatening to blow up the embassy.
The Philippine government, fighting homegrown Muslim and communist insurgencies as well as Jemaah Islamiah, is a staunch security ally to Washington.
But anti-American sentiment in the Philippines, a former U S colony, has risen in recent weeks with six visiting U S soldiers being investigated over allegations they raped a Philippines woman on Nov.
1 after joint military exercises.
"An attack on any US embassy in the world is every Islamic militant"s dream," said a Philippine intelligence official, adding that two leading foreign militants hiding on the southern island of Mindanao wanted Indonesians to carry out attacks.
Citing information shared by Jakarta, the police official said Dulmatin and Umar Patek had asked a contact in central Java, Abdullah Sunata, to send Indonesian recruits to Mindanao to launch suicide bombings in the Philippines.
Dulmatin and Umar Patek, the main suspects in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed nearly 200 people, are high on a U S terrorism blacklist.
Washington has offered a reward of 10 million dollars for the arrest of Dulmatin and $1 million for Umar Patek.