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Southeast Asia

Jakarta accepting that key Bali bombing suspect is Indonesian marks a reversal

2025-01-28

[BenarNews] Southeast Asian nation is considering seeking repatriation of Hambali – detained at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay since 2006 – whose case remains resolved.

Indonesia’s new government is considering seeking a key Bali bombing suspect’s return from Guantanamo Bay because, its law minister said, Jakarta is as concerned about its citizens imprisoned abroad as it is in repatriating some foreign convicts.

Jakarta’s acknowledgement that Hambali

...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then...
, the suspect in jug at the U.S. military base in Cuba, is Indonesian marks a reversal. Analysts say the change may be linked to his bully boy group Jemaah Islamiyah disbanding or President Prabowo Subianto’s historical concern for the rights of citizens abroad.

The reason given by Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia’s law minister, referred to Jakarta’s repatriation last month of a Filipina and five Australian drug convicts.

"Our primary concern is ensuring the protection and legal assistance for all Indonesian nationals abroad, regardless of their actions," Yusril told news hounds in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"This demonstrates to the public that the government is not only concerned with foreign prisoners in Indonesia but also cares for Indonesian citizens detained abroad," he had told news hounds last week, state news agency Antara reported.

BenarNews contacted Yusril’s office, which confirmed his comments to the media.

Hambali, whose real name is Encep Nurjaman, has been detained without trial for 18 years at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, with his case still unresolved.

The three bombs that targeted Bali nightclubs on Oct. 12, 2002, killed 202 people. The attacks were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian bully boy network linked to al-Qaeda — Hambali was a big shot.

Now 60 years old, Hambali was first arraigned before a U.S. military judge only in 2021. Another pre-trial hearing in the case is scheduled next week, from Jan. 27 until Jan. 31.

The latest developments in Indonesia related to the Hambali case follow the quiet repatriation last month of two Malaysian accomplices in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Yusril said that recent efforts through the previous Indonesian government to establish communication with Hambali through the Foreign Ministry had failed.

"We also asked the United States to expedite his trial, but that has not happened. In earlier discussions, repatriation for trial in Indonesia was considered," Yusril said.

Sidney Jones, senior advisor at the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said that bringing Hambali back home was "the right thing to do."

"Nothing justifies the treatment Hambali has endured, including reported torture and indefinite detention," Jones told BenarNews.

"If he had been tried in Indonesia after his 2003 arrest, he might have received a life sentence."

The country’s counterterrorism unit, Detachment 88, though, is capable of monitoring him effectively, Jones said.

A front man for the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) declined to comment about why the government had reversed its position on Hambali.

As recently as 2021, the government denied that Hambali was an Indonesian citizen, citing his ownership of a foreign passport, and rejected any consideration of bringing him back.

Guantanamo Bay, a facility criticized globally for holding suspects indefinitely without trial, has long been a symbol of the post-9/11 war on terror, noted Al Chaidar, a terrorism analyst from Malikussaleh University in Lhokseumawe.

"This is the United States’ greatest failure — claiming to uphold democracy but disregarding the rule of law," he said.

"Hambali has been detained for more than 20 years without resolution."

Adlini Ilma Ghaisany Sjah, a terrorism researcher at Nanyang Technological University, told BenarNews "it’s possible" that this Indonesian government’s shift is related to the end of JI.

"The Indonesian police have also announced plans to repatriate 16 former JI members from Syria and 10 from the Philippines, which could indicate a broader shift in policy," said Adlini, from the Singapore university’s Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research.

Besides, Prabowo has in the past championed the rights of Indonesian nationals abroad.

For instance, Prabowo himself advocated for the eventually successful return in 2021 of an Indonesian domestic worker on death row in Malaysia.

It is possible that if Jakarta requested Hambali’s repatriation, it may face resistance from the new U.S. administration under Donald Trump

...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
, Ian Wilson from Murdoch University in Australia told BenarNews.

"Considering Trump’s support for keeping the Guantanamo internment camp in operation, it would seem unlikely he’d be receptive to the idea of repatriation," said Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies.

"[That is] unless it was part of a deal seen as having clear benefits for his administration."

Wilson was referring to Trump’s earlier term as president, when he signed an executive order in 2018 to keep Guantanamo open.

Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, Buford bit the snake and Eloise began speaking in tongues...
one of Hambali’s younger brothers, Kankan Abdulkodir, told BenarNews that he had heard of talk regarding the potential repatriation and expressed hope for the best.

Kankan said the family last spoke to Hambali via video call last December, during which he told them he was in good health, but they were not allowed to discuss his legal case.

"If it is his fate to be released, then I hope it will happen," Kankan said.

"But if he has to stay at Guantanamo Bay, then so be it."

Link

Southeast Asia

IS-linked militants kill 4 Christians in Indonesia

2020-11-29

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Police: #IS-linked militants #kill 4 #Christians in #Indonesia https://t.co/1rI9U0I02K
— DhakaTribune (@DhakaTribune) November 28, 2020

Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-linked forces of Evil killed four people in a remote Christian community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Saturday, with one victim beheaded and another burned to death.

The group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed Lembantongoa village in Central Sulawesi province Friday morning, killing several residents and torching half a dozen homes, including one used for regular prayers and services, police said.

No arrests had yet been made and the motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

But authorities pointed the finger at the Sulawesi-based East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens of radical groups across the Southeast Asian archipelago that have pledged allegiance to IS.

Indonesia, the world's biggest Moslem majority nation, has long wrestled with Islamist militancy and terror attacks, while Central Sulawesi has seen intermittent violence between Christians and Moslems for decades.

The makeshift church was empty at the time of the early morning attack by around eight Death Eaters, he added.

"People were just in their homes when it happened," Priyahutama said.

Lembantongoa village head Rifai, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said one victim was beheaded and another was nearly decapitated.

One of the other all-male victims was stabbed while a fourth was burned to death in his home, he added.

If confirmed to be the work of MIT, Friday's killings would be its first significant attack since the organization's leader was killed four years ago by Indonesia's elite anti-terror squad, according to Jakarta-based terrorism expert Sidney Jones.

In 2018, MIT was believed to have sent forces of Evil posing as humanitarian workers into Central Sulawesi's quake-tsunami hit Palu city in a bid to recruit new members, Jones said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia says breaks up plot to attack police over election period

2019-05-08

[AlAhram] Indonesian anti-terrorism police have rubbed out one Islamist bad boy and detained six suspected of planning attacks on officers with firearms or suicide kabooms under the cover of rallies tied to recent elections, a police front man said.

The suspects were detained after weekend raids in Bekasi in West Java and one died after being shot when he threw a bomb at police, national police front man Dedi Prasetyo said.

"They were planning to take police firearms and use them to commit terrorism, whether by becoming jacket wallahs or performing other attacks that could be fatal for protesters," Prasetyo said, adding that explosives had also been seized.

President Joko Widodo declared victory after the April 17 election based on unofficial results from private pollsters, but his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto, has complained of widespread cheating and insists he won.

Prabowo has said that if his complaints were not addressed and an official count due by May 22 confirmed his loss, it could trigger "people power" style protests.

Prasetyo said the suspected ~~bandidos~~ snuffies were linked to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-inspired Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group, the largest Islamic State-linked group in Indonesia, which was legally disbanded last year for "conducting terrorism" and affiliating itself with the foreign bad boy group.

He said the suspects intended to use explosives and firearms to imitate the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which ~~bandidos~~ snuffies carried out a series of attacks and bombings across India's financial capital.

Indonesian police have had considerable success in stopping major attacks since the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, though analysts warn against complacency.

"Indonesia has been lucky thus far that its Lions of Islam generally have had too little experience to think big," analyst Sidney Jones from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict said in a recent report.

"With a little imagination and better leadership, these pro-ISIS cells could do far greater damage," said Jones.

In March, the wife and son of a suspected bad boy blew themselves up in their home on the island of Sumatra after hours of tense negotiations with counter-terrorism officers.

Indonesia also saw a series of gruesome attacks in the city of Surabaya a year ago, when whole families, including children as young as nine, strapped on explosive vests and blew themselves up at churches and cop shoppes, killing more than 30 people.

Link

Southeast Asia

ISIS claims suicide attack on Jakarta bus station

2017-05-27

[IsraelTimes] Three coppers killed Wednesday in ongoing terror surge in world’s most populous Moslem-majority state.

The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS) terror group has grabbed credit for a twin suicide kaboom at a Jakarta bus terminal that killed three coppers, the latest attack to hit Indonesia as it faces a surge in terror plots.

Analysts described the claim as credible and said they believed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS-linked bully boys, carried out the bombing.

Two jacket wallahs attacked the busy terminal in the capital late Wednesday in a dramatic assault that sparked panic and left human body parts and shattered glass strewn across the street.

Three coppers were killed, and five other officers and five civilians injured in the bombing at the Kampung Melayu terminal. Authorities Thursday raided the houses of the suspected bombers, and found Islamic teaching materials and bladed weapons.

IS propaganda agency Amaq said late Thursday that the "attack on the Indonesian police gathering in the city of Jakarta was carried out by one of the fighters of the Islamic State," in a statement carried by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Jakarta-based security analyst Sidney Jones, who heads the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict think tank, described the claim as "very credible." She said she believed that the branch of JAD based in Bandung, a city on the main island of Java, had carried out the bombing.

Al Chaidar, a terrorism expert from the University of Malikussaleh in Indonesia’s Aceh province, said he also thought the claim credible.

JAD was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in January, which said the network was an umbrella group for about two dozen bully boy outfits.

Some have pointed the finger at the group for carrying out a suicide and gun attack in Jakarta in January last year that left four assailants and four civilians dead, and was also claimed by IS.

Link

Southeast Asia

Muslim extremists regrouping, plotting attacks in Indonesia

2012-07-18

Islamic extremists in Indonesia are regrouping despite a decade-long crackdown that has weakened the deadliest networks, the International Crisis Group think-tank has said.

Militants are finding each other and building new cells "on the run, in prison and through Internet forums, military training camps and arranged marriages", the report said, saying the threat of terrorism was far from over.

Strengthened anti-terror units have divided cells such as Jemaah Islamiyah, but smaller groups have formed and carried out low-impact attacks.

International Crisis Group (ICG) senior adviser Sidney Jones said in a statement. "Fortunately for Indonesia, most of these would-be terrorists have been singularly inept. But there are signs that at least some are learning lessons from their mistakes and becoming more strategic in their thinking. The danger is not over."

In early 2010, police discovered a training camp in Aceh province "involving all major jihadi groups in the country", according to the report, "How Indonesian Extremists Regroup".

After around 200 people were arrested and some 30 suspects killed over the following two years, new alliances emerged, dormant cells were revived and recruits were made "through internet chatting, prison visits and radical lectures".

ICG Southeast Asia project director Jim Della-Giacoma said officials in Indonesia had been lucky because the extremists had often not been competent. He said, "Ten years after Bali, there are virtually no effective programs in place to address the conditions that allow jihadi ideology to flourish."

Link

Southeast Asia

Muslim extremists regrouping in Indonesia, planning new attacks

2012-07-17

MUSLIM faceless myrmidons in Indonesia are regrouping despite a decade-long crackdown that has weakened the deadliest networks, the International Crisis Group think-tank has said.

Islamists are finding each other and building new cells "on the run, in prison and through Internet forums, military training camps and arranged marriages", the report said, warning the threat of terrorism was far from over.

Beefed-up anti-terror units have divided cells such as Jemaah Islamiyah - blamed for the 2002 twin bombings on Bali that killed 202 people - but smaller groups have formed and carried out low-impact attacks.

"Fortunately for Indonesia, most of these would-be Orcs and similar vermin have been singularly inept,"

"Fortunately for Indonesia, most of these would-be Orcs and similar vermin have been singularly inept," International Crisis Group (ICG) senior adviser Sidney Jones said in a statement.

"But there are signs that at least some are learning lessons from their mistakes and becoming more strategic in their thinking. The danger is not over."

In early 2010, police discovered a training camp in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra, "involving all major jihadi groups in the country", according to the report, "How Indonesian Extremists Regroup".

After around 200 people were cooled for a few years
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
and some 30 suspects killed over the following two years, new alliances emerged, dormant cells were revived and recruits were made "through internet chatting, prison visits and radical lectures".

ICG Southeast Asia project director Jim Della-Giacoma said police in Indonesia - the world's most populous Mohammedan country - had been lucky because the faceless myrmidons had been incompetent in many cases.

"Ten years after Bali, there are virtually no effective programs in place to address the conditions that allow jihadi ideology to flourish," he said.

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Southeast Asia

Expert: Indonesian terror threat more local

2011-11-30

The threat to Indonesia from terrorism remains high, with police and government bodies deemed to have transgressed against Islamic teaching now the main targets, an expert warned on Tuesday.

Sidney Jones, a senior adviser with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said it would be "difficult to reduce the level of radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia."

She said, "The numbers [of victims of terrorism] have indeed fallen, but the number of [terrorist] groups continues to rise," she said at a public discussion on the links between terrorism, politics and Islam in Aceh.

Jones said the evidence that terror cells were flourishing did not point to failure by the police or government, but rather demonstrated the strength of the radical ideology behind those groups.

She said, "Fortunately their capacity is still low. For instance, in recent acts of terrorism, the only fatalities have been the suicide bombers. Nevertheless, over time they will become more effective."

She also said that their targets were also changing. In the past Western citizens and interests were the usual target for terrorists, this had now switched to police stations and government offices in areas where the authorities were not considered to be supportive of Islamic doctrine.

Jones said, "Their number one enemy is the police and thaghut [infidel] government officials. Any public official who doesnt back Shariah law is seen as an infidel, while their motivation for attacking the police is out of revenge for their colleagues who have been killed or arrested by police."

Jones continued, "Theres now a sort of changing of tactics, where terrorists realize that the bigger their organization, the easier it is for the authorities to detect. So theyre going with small cells. And theres no need for any coordination between these cells because theyre all working for the same aims and vision."

She added, "People who used to take part in rallies against the Ahmadiyah minority sect have now gone on to become members of these cells."

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia attack shows individual jihad trend: ICG

2011-04-20

[Straits Times] A SUICIDE attack at a mosque in an Indonesian cop shoppe last week fits a pattern of 'individual jihad' aimed at local targets by small groups of myrmidons, a think-tank said on Tuesday.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) said a trend was emerging that favoured assassinations over indiscriminate bombings, local over foreign targets and individual or small group action over more hierarchical organisations.

In a new report entitled 'Indonesian Jihadism: Small Groups, Big Plans', the Brussels-based ICG said the two approaches were complementary.

Larger jihadi organisations have the networks and funds to support religious outreach by Death Eaters espousing myrmidon principles through the media and religious study sessions, the report said.

Groups like regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and hardline Islamic group Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) are placing greater focus on local 'enemies' seen as 'oppressors', including the police, Christians and the minority Islamic sect Ahmadiyah.

ICG senior advisor Sidney Jones said the emergence of small groups undertaking jihad on their own highlighted the urgent need for prevention programmes 'which are virtually non-existent in Indonesia'.

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Southeast Asia

Indonesia arrests one of last key militants

2010-12-11

[Emirates 24/7] Indonesia has jugged a key Islamist Islamic exemplar commander for alleged involvement in paramilitary training in Southeast Asia, a move that will reduce the threat of terror attacks in Southeast Asia's largest economy, police said on Friday.

The capture is the latest in a string of high-profile raids in the past year by Western-trained anti-terror police after deadly bomb attacks on Jakarta hotels in 2009, underlining a potential improvement in security that could help draw foreign investment.

Security experts said Friday's arrest of Mustofa, alias Abu Tholut, one of only a few Islamist Islamic exemplar leaders captured alive, will help reveal more about Islamic Islamic exemplar movements and their plans in Indonesia.

"With a series of captures we've had recently, including Tholut, we can press terrorism down in Indonesia," police front man Iskandar Hasan told Rooters.

Mustofa is a firearms expert who went to Afghanistan in the late 1980s before returning to Asia to train Islamic exemplar group Jemaah Islamiah, a paramilitary camp in Mindanao in the Philippines and recently another camp in Indonesia's Aceh, said Sidney Jones, an expert on security at International Crisis Group in Jakarta.

"He is going to be potentially a very valuable source of information who knows about the exact role of Abu Bakar Bashir as well as the activities of the group in Aceh," she said.

Bashir, said by police to be the leader of al Qaeda in Indonesia, twice beat feet terror charges but is now in detention for alleged involvement with the Aceh group.

The Aceh-based group had planned to attack the president, government officials, and state guests attending an independence day event in August, with the aim of declaring Indonesia an Islamic state ruled by sharia law, police have said.

Since bomb attacks in the capital in July last year, blamed on a Jemaah Islamiah splinter group, police have foiled further attacks, and increased stability and a strong economy is expected to draw greater portfolio and direct investment.

Link

Southeast Asia

Bali's successors issue new call for jihad

2010-03-25

During its long and bloody history in Indonesia which includes a string of deadly bombings, among them the 2002 attack on the Bali beach resort Jemaah Islamiyah has been called many things: terrorists, murderers, allies of Osama bin Laden. But until this month, no one had ever called them weak-kneed. But in a video analysts say heralds the formation of an even more extreme organization in Indonesia, the group that killed 202 people in Bali and is suspected of carrying out subsequent attacks on foreign-owned hotels and the Australian embassy in Jakarta is taunted by assault rifle-wielding men as having lost its stomach for holy war.

To all members of Jemaah Islamiyah, unite! Jihad is not waged with pens or wearing prayer caps and sarongs,' one militant says to the camera, his face obscured by an editor. No, you fight jihad with weapons. Before your hair goes grey with age, join us!' He goes on to call out one moderate leader of Jemaah Islamiyah by name, saying all he does is sit in an office.'

The 75-minute video, posted online by a group that calls itself al-Qaeda in Aceh, is similar in style to those produced by the main al-Qaeda network based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Militants are shown firing weapons and going through physical training. Clips from Mr. bin Laden's speeches are interspersed with calls for the establishment of an Islamic state in Indonesia.

Two weeks before the video was posted online, a special unit of the Indonesian police raided what they called a terrorist training camp' deep in the forests of the province of Aceh, the westernmost point of Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago with the world's largest population of Muslims. But while the police operations which captured dozens of assault rifles and hand grenades, as well as cash and fake identification papers were a blow to al-Qaeda in Aceh, discoveries made at the camp revealed how dangerous the new group may be.

While underscoring the split within Jemaah Islamiyah, which fractured under police pressure after the Bali bombings, the evidence suggests a new unity among Indonesia's extremist groups, analysts say. Those caught or killed at the training camp included several hardline members of Jemaah Islamiyah, as well as fighters from at least five other militant factions that had never previously found common cause. Little bomb-making material was discovered at the camp, leading to speculation that the group may have ruled out future Bali-style attacks, which have been divisive among jihadis, since many of those killed in such mass bombings have been Muslims.

The group appeared instead to have been training to carry out targeted assassinations or perhaps military-style assaults similar to the 2008 attacks on foreign hotels and other targets in the Indian city of Mumbai. The group's weaponry was apparently supplied by a member who was also a Jakarta police officer with access to firearms slated for disposal.

It's a coming together of most of the main jihadi groups [in Indonesia], with the exception of Jemaah Islamiyah,' said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based analyst for the International Crisis Group. It was really a composite group of people who seem to have agreed on a lowest common denominator of what they could all find acceptable. They didn't necessarily agree to carry out [Bali]-style bombings, but they did agree on military training and the need to establish an Islamic state, by force if necessary.'

The militants are believed to have been planning an attack on the United Nations headquarters in Banda Aceh, the regional capital, and police are looking for links between the group and a series of mysterious shootings that targeted foreigners in the city last year. It has become clear to us that Dulmatin had instructed those whom we have managed to capture alive to launch violent attacks against very specific targets,' said General Bambang Hendarso Danuri, Indonesia's national police chief.

Despite the new organization's name, Ms. Jones said it isn't clear whether there are any real ties between it and the wider al-Qaeda network. However, al-Qaeda in Aceh does have strong links to Abu Sayyaf, the notorious group that has terrorized the southern Philippines for two decades. Several prominent members, including Mr. Dulmatin and the man believed to have succeeded him as leader of al-Qaeda in Aceh, Umar Patek, are known to have fled Indonesia following the Bali bombings and gone to the Philippines, where they fought alongside Abu Sayyaf. Like Mr. Dulmatin, Mr. Patek is a former senior commander in Jemaah Islamiyah renowned for his bomb-making skills.

One of those killed at the Aceh camp was a Filipino fighter believed to have been a member of Abu Sayyaf, raising concern at the ease with which the militants appear to be moving between Indonesia and the Philippines.

The new organization is believed to have chosen Aceh for its remoteness, as well as the fact that the semi-autonomous government there recently imposed a version of sharia law. But while those captured include several former members of the Free Aceh Movement that in 2005 ended a 30-year military campaign for independence, al-Qaeda in Aceh does not have the support of the wider Free Aceh Movement leadership. In fact, police say it was Free Aceh Movement fighters who led them to the militant training camp.

But while the fledgling al-Qaeda in Aceh may have lost its leader and main training grounds, police say there are at least seven more cells of the organization active on Indonesia's main island of Java alone. This network still has the capacity to create new cells. This is a very strong terrorism network,' said Andi Widjajanto, a military analyst at the University of Indonesia. What we are now seeing is the strengthening of the terrorist network in Indonesia, not its weakening.'

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Southeast Asia

Dulmatin Really Dead

2010-03-10

Reuters) - A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country. Dulmatin, who once trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, was one of three militants killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe and a house nearby, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.

"Today I can announce to you that after a successful police raid against the terrorists hiding out in Jakarta yesterday, we can confirm that one of those that was killed was Dulmatin, one of the top Southeast Asian terrorists," Yudhoyono said in a speech in Australia's parliament house in Canberra.

The series of police raids that led to Dulmatin's death will be seen as a coup in Indonesia's fight against Islamist radicals ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit March 20-22. But analysts said Dulmatin's emergence in Indonesia with a new group showed a worrisome ability of local militants to forge international links, including with al Qaeda-affiliated outfits.

Police shot dead Dulmatin, who they said fired at officers with a revolver he was carrying, and two others in a series of coordinated raids on the outskirts of Jakarta on Tuesday.

Dulmatin's body was identified after DNA tests and also by his chin shape, eyebrows and freckles, police said on Wednesday. The other two men killed were said to be his bodyguards.

Dulmatin, an electronics specialist, was a top bomb technician for the Southeast Asian Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah. Authorities say he helped plan the suicide bombings that ripped apart two night clubs in Bali and killed 202 people in 2002.

He fled to the southern Philippines in 2003 and the U.S. government had a $10 million reward for his capture. The 40-year-old who was born in Central Java is said to have been wounded after escaping a raid by Philippine security forces.

JIHADIST BASE

Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has launched raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant Islamist training camp in Aceh last month. Books on jihad, rifles and military uniforms were found during the raids in which 21 suspected members of the group were detained in Aceh and Java.

Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying on Tuesday the group planned to set up a Southeast Asian jihadist network in the Sumatran province. Analysts said Dulmatin had the capability to succeed Noordin Mohammad Top, a Malaysian-born militant and bomb maker killed by police last year during a raid in central Java.

Top, who set up a violent splinter group of Jemaah Islamiah, masterminded a series of bombings including suicide attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta last July.

Sidney Jones, an expert at the International Crisis Group, said the new group was also a splinter of Jemaah Islamiah, likely calling itself the Aceh branch of al Qaeda for Southeast Asia (Tandzim Al Qoidah Indonesia Wilayah Serambi Makkah) Jones said that the militants were probably planning attacks but the recent arrests and deaths should have damaged their capacity to carry them out for now.

But the analyst said it was unclear if there were other Aceh-like cells and the re-emergence of Dulmatin in Indonesia showed the worrying extent of the international links Indonesia militants have forged. "This means that there probably was far more coordination with the Philippines over the last five years than we had any appreciation of," she said.

In the Philippines, Dulmatin was last thought to be operating with the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, along with another Indonesian wanted over the Bali bombings, Umar Patek.

National Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a news conference that the raids in Jakarta had turned up remote controls that could be used to detonate bombs. He also said that Dulmatin was more dangerous than some other well known militants, including expert bomb-maker Azahari Husin, who was killed by Indonesian police.

Dulmatin's group had secured 500 million rupiah ($54,500) to buy weapons and for military training, with more money available, he added. Security analyst Dynno Chressbon said Dulmatin's group was believed to have supplied about 27 weapons, including M-16s and AK-47s to the group in Aceh.

Since the 2002 Bali bombings, Indonesian authorities have captured or killed around 440 militant suspects, with around 250 convicted in courts and three executed by firing squad.

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Southeast Asia

'Al-Qaida in Aceh' says survived Indonesia arrests

2010-03-06

A group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed Saturday to be the target of a police crackdown in the Indonesian province, where authorities have arrested and charged suspected militants with planning terrorist attacks.

In a statement posted on the blog hosting site WordPress.com, the group said it had survived the police crackdown and pledged to continue its jihad against "Zionist Jews and Christians and apostates." Later Saturday, WordPress blocked access to the blog for violating its terms of service. It was not possible to authenticate the statement. Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang said the statement was under investigation, and could yet prove to be a hoax.

Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb. 22, the latest two on Saturday. Police suspect the group is linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian offshoot of al-Qaida that has been blamed for twin bombings last year on hotels in Jakarta, and 2002 bombings on the island of Bali.

"As of the 10th day of the pursuit against us, we survive to continue jihad although some of our brothers were captured and martyred," the statement said. "We hereby assure Muslims that we will uphold our pledge to jihad against the Zionist Jews and Christians and apostates until God awards us victory, or we become martyrs in the way of Allah," it added.

Sidney Jones, Jakarta-based senior adviser for the International Crisis Group think tank, said she had never heard of the group and could not say whether the statement spoke for the militants in Aceh. She said militants in the province appeared to comprise several movements, including Jemaah Islamiyah.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday that the group, which he did not name, had set up in Aceh believing that Indonesian security forces had lost interest in the province since a violent separatist movement ended there in 2005. He said members of the separatist movement were not part of the new group.

Police say 14 of the suspects confessed to undergoing paramilitary training, including weapons use and hand-to-hand combat. They say the militants were preparing for a terrorist attack against an undisclosed target. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

On Saturday, two more suspected militants were arrested in Aceh but have yet to be charged, Aritonang said. He declined to detail the circumstances of those arrests.

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