Quezon City (6 October) -- TWO alleged Indonesian operatives of the Jemaah Islamiya (JI) and Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani are still holed out in the jungles of Patikul town in Sulu province.

This was confirmed by the wife of suspected JI bomb expert Dulmatin, who was arrested with her two children, aged 6 and 8, in Barangay (village) Sandah in Patikul Tuesday, Armed Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said.

Bacarro said investigators are also "looking into the possible connection" of Dulmatin's wife, who is also Indonesian, to the JI, Al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian arm, but she is being held on alleged violations of immigration laws for entering the country without proper documents.

Armed with a mission order from the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID), government troops raided the house where Dulmatin's wife and children were staying at around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Bacarro said.

Dulmatin, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, and another JI suspect Umar Patek, both of them accused of masterminding the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 persons, and Janjalani are the targets of a two-month-long manhunt by over 6,000 troops.

The Abu Sayyaf and the JI have been responsible for the worst terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia.