MANILA, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Government security forces captured a wanted bomb expert linked to a series of bombings that left dozens of people dead when the troops swooped down on his lair in the troubled southern Philippines, police said.

    Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the arrest of Ansar Bernardino Venancio, also known as Hasan Venancio, was conducted after more than a month of intelligence-gathering on his whereabouts.

    The security forces raided the safehouse of Venancio Thursday morning at the village of Lilod in Marawe City, Lanao del Sur province, leaving him with no option but to yield, Jabarani said.

    Police and military intelligence units have been hunting down Venancio since his name appeared as one of those responsible not only for the simultaneous bombings of a gas station, a passenger bus and Light Rail Transit train on Dec. 30, 2000, but also for the Davao City International Airport blast that left more than 22 people dead.

    What drew further attention of the security forces on Venancio was when a background check and a trail of his activities revealed that he maintains link with the Indonesia-based Southeast Asia terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has connections with the international terror group al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden.

    JI, labeled as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, is a militant Islamic network dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, Singapore and Brunei.

    "His capture in Marawi City is a big-blow to the aborted terror plan of the JI in Mindanao and a big setback on the terror groups operating in Mindanao," said Superintendent Danilo Bacas, police operations chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

    Venancio will be turned over to a local court in Davao Oriental province, which issued an arrest warrant for a charge of murder against him. The arrest warrant was the one used in capturing Venancio.

    "He will be subsequently presented to the Department of Justice in Manila for his case of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder filed in Manila as among the suspects in the Rizal Day bombings (on Dec. 30, 2000)," said Bacas.

    Early this month, three people were sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the Rizal Day bombings.