Signs of Iraqi-Trained Terror Network Found : Security: Manila case prompts a global alert amid evidence that Baghdad’s embassies abroad handle arms.

Using diaries, a photo album and passports from two would-be bombers directed by the Iraqi Embassy here, Western intelligence agencies say they have found key leads to what they believe is a network of terrorists trained in Baghdad and sent to countries around the world.

The clues here led to the arrests Wednesday of two Iraqis and two Jordanians in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as an international police and immigration alert for Iraqis or other potential Arab terrorists using passports and travel patterns similar to those detected here.

Evidence also is growing that Iraqi embassies have used diplomatic pouches to import arms and explosives. Hundreds of armed Thai troops were deployed to embassies, airline offices and other potential terrorist sites in Bangkok last weekend after authorities received credible reports that the Iraqi Embassy had smuggled in and distributed weapons, C-4 military explosives and sophisticated timers to terrorist teams.

“The volume is quite large,” said one official here. “They’re talking about crates of weapons.”

The authorities especially fear the Iraqis may have smuggled in Soviet SA-16 shoulder-fired missiles, similar to American-made Stinger missiles, which can be used to shoot down an airliner.

The official said Bangkok appears to be a “logistics center” for Iraqi terrorist attacks in Asia. “They’re bringing people in,” he said. “They’re bringing supplies in. And they’re expert at making fake passports.”

Anomalies in passports used by two Iraqis involved in a bungled bombing Saturday near a U.S. library here provided what another official called a “major break” in the search for Iraqi terrorists. “Now we have something to go on, to look for in other countries,” he said.

He said the search will be “most intensive” in countries with known concentrations of Iraqis, Lebanese and Palestinians, “places where they have a local community in which to hide.”

He specifically cited Greece and Italy in southern Europe, most of Central America, a dozen countries in West Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In addition, it was learned that the Federal Aviation Administration informed airlines Tuesday night that 140 Ethiopian passports have been stolen and are believed to be in the hands of a Middle East terrorist organization.

Although terrorist bombings have been reported around the globe since the Persian Gulf War began last week, the attempted bombing here was the first, and so far only, terrorist attack that has conclusively been traced to an Iraqi embassy. Officials said the passports and other evidence indicated the terrorists had been sent from Baghdad specifically to carry out the bombing.

“It is clear that what has happened here is part of a global deployment by the Iraqis,” said another Western official.

But for such a large operation, relatively few terrorist acts have been launched. U.S. intelligence sources theorized that allied attacks on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s command and control facilities have disrupted Baghdad’s ability to communicate with Iraqi agents known to have been dispatched earlier.

“The volume on some of what we’re picking up is definitely down,” one official said of Hussein’s communications since the bombing began Jan. 17. A failure of command and control communications could explain Hussein’s public calls for terrorists to strike.

A counterterrorist official, however, said Hussein’s timing could be entirely purposeful--stretching out his response to achieve the most dramatic impact.

An intelligence official for a foreign government noted that terrorist professionals whom the Iraqis might have employed “have a lot less support than they used to have. The East Germans, the Bulgarians, the KGB aren’t there to support them the way they used to.”

Police searched Wednesday for at least two more Iraqi suspects in the Manila bombing, as Philippine troops and armored personnel carriers were deployed outside several Western embassies, airline offices, international schools and posh residential compounds where most diplomats and foreigners live.

The two Manila terrorists were carrying their passports when their bomb exploded prematurely, killing one and severely injuring the other. They apparently planned to leave for the airport after setting the bomb, since they had purchased tickets for a Lufthansa Airlines flight leaving two hours later to Bangkok, en route to Amman, Jordan.

“The plan was they would be on the plane when the bomb went off,” said Alfredo Lim, chief of the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation.

The two men had arrived on tourist visas from Bangkok on Dec. 6, but obtained a visa extension until Feb. 6.

Muwafak Ani, Iraq’s second-ranking diplomat here and intelligence chief, has been ordered out of the Philippines for allegedly directing the bombing. Ani met repeatedly with the two terrorists at the embassy, and his car, a Pajero with diplomatic plates, was used to drop them near the library.

Another Iraqi diplomat and intelligence operative is being denied accreditation and will be asked to leave. Investigators say the envoy gave cash to Iraqi and Palestinian students, including two brothers who are now suspects in the bombing, in his hotel room shortly after arriving in the Philippines on Jan. 14.

The two brothers, both Iraqi student leaders and sons of an Iraqi diplomat formerly stationed here, were arrested and will be deported as well, officials said Wednesday.

Immigration officials here also are watching for eight suspected members of the radical leftist Japanese Red Army Faction, according to immigration commissioner Andrea Domingo.

“We have an intelligence report that eight members of the Japanese Red Army are trying to enter the Philippines,” she said. “We’re told these eight went to Baghdad and pledged their allegiance to Saddam Hussein.”

Authorities say the group has only about 22 known members, but they work closely with Arab terrorist groups opposed to the United States and Israel.

Drogin reported from Manila and Ostrow from Washington.