WASHINGTON -- An international manhunt has been launched to track down 20 Muslim extremists -- 15 of various Asian and Mideast nationalities and five Filipinos -- linked to Ramzi Ahmed Yousef's terrorist operations in the Philippines, according to Philippine and U.S. officials.
The extremists are widely believed to make up the central core of a cell operated by Mr. Yousef, who was arrested last week in Islamabad, Pakistan, for allegedly masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
The cell is thought to have plotted to attack Pope John Paul II and U.S. air carriers flying Asian routes. The extremists may be planning to follow through on those attacks or others, according to Asian and U.S. sources.
Philippine authorities disclosed yesterday that evidence Mr. Yousef left behind also indicated plans to bomb U.S. diplomatic facilities in Asia. Many U.S. diplomatic facilities are now on heightened alert.
The new and broader evidence accumulated in both Manila and Islamabad is expected to lead to new charges in addition to the 11 counts he already faces for the World Trade Center bombing, U.S. officials said yesterday.
But the extent of the new charges for plotting against other American diplomatic and commercial interests is unclear. U.S. law enforcement and local security agents are still sorting through leads in both cases.
New evidence in Manila, for example, shows that the Dec. 11 bombing aboard Philippines Airlines Flight 434, allegedly xTC masterminded by Mr. Yousef, was "a test run for planned bombings of U.S. commercial aircraft" in Asia, Philippine officials say.
The test involved the logistics of getting a bomb into Manila's international airport and then onto a plane. The explosives on Flight 434 were small. One man was killed and 10 were injured on the flight.
U.S. officials now fear that rather than forcing the extremists to abandon their schemes, Mr. Yousef's arrest may instead lead his cell to carry on with the planned attacks as a means of retaliation or as part of a new campaign to win his release, sources said.
Although the prime focus of the manhunt is in the Philippines, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, Interpol and other Asian and Middle Eastern governments are searching other parts of the world, in case some or all of them also managed to escape.
The group of 20 extremists was "discovered to have conducted unusually regimented activities in a secluded beach area in Lian Batangas," a province south of Manila, a Philippine spokesman said yesterday. He would not elaborate. The cell is the third one Mr. Yousef is widely believed to have built.
Mr. Yousef fled the Philippines just days before the intended papal attack after the apartment he used was raided by Philippine security forces. A small fire in his apartment forced the police to move in before they had intended, Philippine officials said. They had hoped to have more time to trace other operatives. Afterward, apartment block residents identified the occupant, who carried documents under the name Naji Owaidah Haddad, from pictures as Mr. Yousef.
In the latest of many versions of Mr. Yousef's identity, U.S. officials now say they believe he is a Pakistani who was born in Kuwait. His family comes from Baluchistan, a coastal region abutting Iran.