Indonesia arrests 7 terror suspects (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia's anti-terrorism squad has arrested seven suspects for allegedly smuggling assault rifles into the country from the Philippines.

National police spokesman Untung Yoga Ana said Wednesday the men were rounded up this week in separate raids in the capital, Jakarta, and other cities on the main island of Java.

They are accused of smuggling firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the Philippines via the Malaysian town of Tawao.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been battling terrorists since 2002 when al-Qaida-linked militants attacked two nightclubs on Bali island, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Hundreds of suspects have been arrested and convicted since then.

View the original article here

Indonesia holds seven terror suspects (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia has arrested seven terror suspects who allegedly smuggled weapons into the country from the Philippines through Malaysia, the national police spokesman said Tuesday.

"They were rounded up in the capital Jakarta and Surabaya city for their alleged involvement in firearms smuggling from the Philippines," Boy Rafli Amar said, adding that they had passed through Tawau in Malaysian Borneo.

"They are now being questioned by the counter-terrorism Detachment 88," he said.

Seven firearms were seized along with about one hundred rounds of ammunition, he added.

An unnamed police source said that the arrested group had planned to mount an armed bank robbery to fund their terror activities.

Police last month arrested 16 terror suspects for a plot to poison police personnel with cyanide at station canteens. According to investigators they planned to inject the poison into mineral water bottles.

In the last few months dozens of suspects have been held who are allegedly part of a new militant cell behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials.

The cell was linked to an April suicide bomb attack in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon in West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a huge bomb near a church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

View the original article here

Indonesia fears backlash from Bali bomb trial (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – Indonesia fears the trial of an alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings would increase terrorist risks and suggested it was not keen on prosecuting Umar Patek, a report said Wednesday.

Patek, one of the most wanted Islamic extremists in Southeast Asia, was arrested in March in Abbottabad in Pakistan -- the same town where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed just weeks later.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, the head of Indonesia's anti-terrorism agency Ansyaad Mbai said Patek would become a new figurehead for violent jihadis if returned to the country of his birth.

"Umar Patek was chased by many countries. There was a (million dollar) prize on his head but now that he's arrested it's as if Indonesia must face the problem alone," Ansyaad told the newspaper.

"This man is very dangerous. His presence here would increase the terror threat, not only to Indonesia but to several countries with a presence here.

"He'll be like fresh air for remnants of the terrorism network. (The terrorists) are dangerous, they still exist and they've been waiting for a figurehead such as Umar Patek."

Born in 1970, Patek was the alleged field coordinator for the massive explosions that flattened night clubs on the holiday island of Bali in 2002, killing more than 200 people, almost 90 of them Australians.

It placed mainly Muslim Indonesia on the front lines of the global battle against Islamic militancy.

A suspected member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), he was also blamed for a series of deadly bombings targeting Christians and Westerners in Indonesia dating back to 1999.

Ansyaad told the Herald Indonesia would face difficulties bringing him to justice, saying that the bombings occurred before Indonesia enacted its counter-terrorism laws.

Australia has previously said it would be "in the closest liaison" with Pakistan and Indonesia over "what happens next in this particular case".

But Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who is due to visit Jakarta this week, suggested that Patek was Indonesia's responsibility.

"Given Patek is an Indonesian citizen and that some of the most serious crimes he is believed to have committed took place in Indonesia, the Australian government considers any action should in the first instance be taken by Indonesian authorities," his spokeswoman said.

View the original article here

Another top terror suspect on trial in Indonesia (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – One of Indonesia's top terrorism suspects went on trial Monday on charges of helping set up a terrorist training camp for a group that plotted attacks on foreigners and assassinations of the country's moderate Muslim leaders.

The trial of Abu Tholut began days after a hard-line cleric was sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting the same jihadist camp.

Tholut, 50, is accused of procuring M16 assault rifles and other weapons for the camp, which was raided early last year in westernmost Aceh province, prosecutor Bambang Suharyadi told the West Jakarta District Court. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Arrested in December, Tholut is one of more than 120 alleged members of the "Tanzim Al Qaeda in Aceh" group to have been captured or killed since the camp was uncovered. More than 50 of those men have been sentenced to prison.

Radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, co-founder of the al-Qaida-linked Islamist movement Jemaah Islamiyah, was last week sentenced to 15 years for supporting the camp.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was thrust onto the front lines of the battle against terrorism in 2002, when Jemaah Islamiyah militants bombed two crowded nightclubs on the resort island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. There have been several attacks since then, but all have been far less deadly.

Police have said the Aceh group was plotting Mumbai-style gun attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels in the capital of Jakarta and assassinations, including of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to punish the government for supporting the U.S.-led anti-terrorism fight.

Tholut, also known as Mustofa, became one of Indonesia's most wanted fugitives after master bomb-makers Noordin M. Top and Dulmatin were gunned down early last year in police raids.

He was convicted for involvement in a 2001 bomb blast at a shopping plaza in central Jakarta that wounded six, and he served five years of an eight-year sentence after getting remission for good behavior. Like dozens of other convicted Indonesian extremists, he returned to his terror network after he was released.

Nasir Abas — a former militant who has helped police track down and arrest several members of his network — said Tholut had been a combatant in Afghanistan and an "excellent instructor" who helped train Islamist militants in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao.

Judges adjourned the trial until next week, when Tholut's lawyers are due to respond to the charges.

View the original article here

Indonesia cleric gets 15 years for inciting terror (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Indonesian Muslim cleric known as spiritual leader of the militants who carried out the deadly 2002 Bali bombings was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for his support of a terror training camp uncovered last year.

Abu Bakar Bashir's conviction for incitement of terrorism followed two unsuccessful attempts by prosecutors over the past eight years to link him to terror activities, including a conviction that was later overturned in the Bali attacks that killed 202 people.

The relatively stern sentence for Bashir, now 72, shows Indonesia's continuing resolve to tackle its deadly extremist movement. The verdict was announced at a Jakarta courthouse amid tight security, with nearly 3,200 police and soldiers patrolling the surrounding area.

Bashir, who denies involvement in terrorism, rejected the ruling, and his lawyer said it would be appealed. "This verdict ignores Sharia law and is based on the infidel law, so it's forbidden for me to accept it," Bashir said in the courtroom.

Hundreds of Bashir's supporters outside the court, some carrying placards saying "Free Abu Bakar Bashir," reacted to the ruling with shock. Many shouted "God is Great" and others wept. Their leaders urged them to be calm. The crowd dispersed peacefully.

The aging cleric has been a potent symbol for Indonesia's radical Islamists and, even if not operationally involved in terrorist attacks, is believed by experts to provide crucial ideological sanction for violent extremism.

Prosecutors said Bashir provided key support for a jihadi training camp discovered in early 2010 in westernmost Aceh province that brought together men from almost every known Indonesian extremist group. Militants there allegedly intended to carry out attacks on foreigners and assassinations of moderate Muslim leaders such as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Bashir was found guilty of inciting terrorism in connection with the jungle camp. But he was not convicted of a charge of funding terrorist activities, with the panel of judges saying there was not enough evidence to prove that Bashir knew that money he raised was used to purchase guns for the training camp.

Arrested militants testified that Bashir watched a video of the Aceh military training and received written reports assuring him that funds he had raised were being used for the struggle to build an Islamic state.

Bashir denied involvement in the camp but repeatedly defended it as legal under Islam. He told reporters before the verdict that the trial was an attempt by the U.S. and Australia "to eliminate me from Indonesia."

Jemaah Islamiyah, the radical group co-founded by Bashir, thrust Indonesia into the front lines of the battle against terrorism with its bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, many of them Australians and Americans.

Since then, the government's counterterrorism campaign has had notable successes, including convictions of dozens of Jemaah Islamiyah operatives in the Bali blasts. Three were executed.

Key radicals also have been killed in shootouts, hundreds of foot soldiers arrested, and the capacity of groups like Jemaah Islamiyah to strike at government and Western targets within Indonesia has been disrupted.

The sentence is "an indication of how strong the Indonesian government's commitment continues to be in terms of prosecuting terrorism in open trials and through effective law enforcement," said Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian terrorism at the International Crisis Group.

"But it doesn't have a direct impact on the strength or weakness of the terrorist threat. Most of the people we see active now are operating in small groups without direction from a single leader like Bashir," she said.

Australia welcomed the verdict, with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd saying it will bring "some measure of justice" to the families of victims of terrorism, and that "full credit" goes to Indonesian authorities for pursuing the case.

Authorities raided the Aceh camp in February of last year, and arrested more than 120 suspected terrorist in the ensuing months.

Some experts say the camp's organizers envisaged it as a vehicle for radicalizing the Acehnese people and as the nucleus of a future Islamic state.

In his summary of the trial, presiding judge Herry Swantoro said militants arrested in the raids had testified that they learned to use weapons, read maps and other aspects of military training at the camp.

Prosecutors had said Bashir raised about 1.03 billion Indonesian rupiah ($120,800), which was used to buy guns, ammunition and equipment for jihadist training.

Bashir spent previous stints in detention. He was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings, but prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations and reduced his four-year prison sentence to 18 months for immigration violations.

Soon after his release, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 2 1/2 years, this time for inciting the Bali blasts, a charge that was overturned on appeal. He was freed in 2006.

Brian Deegan, whose 21-year-old son Josh was among the 88 Australians killed in the Bali bombings, welcomed the sentence.

Deegan, a lawyer in the southern Australian city of Adelaide, said victims and their families would be satisfied with Bashir's harsher sentence this time.

"It gives a degree of satisfaction that the courts are treating him more appropriately than they did with respect to the Bali tragedy," Deegan said.

___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Stephen Wright in Jakarta, Rod McGuirk in Canberra and Sarah Dilorenzo in Sydney contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Analysis: Indonesia cleric's jailing fails to ease terror fight (Reuters)

By Neil Chatterjee and Olivia Rondonuwu Neil Chatterjee And Olivia Rondonuwu – Fri Jun 17, 5:40 am ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) – While Indonesia's most notorious Islamist was sitting in a cell awaiting his fate, militants linked to his supposedly peaceful Jema'ah Ansharut Tauhid group shot policemen while trying to rob a bank and wounded 30 people in a suicide bombing at a police mosque.

The attacks could signal further mergers of militant splinter factions with Islamist groups not previously involved in terror as they recruit young men left behind by a booming economy and unite in their opposition to minorities, non-Muslims and pluralism -- the bedrock of the world's largest Muslim community.

Judges on Thursday jailed frail cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 72, the spiritual leader behind the 2002 Bali bombings, for 15 years for aiding a group that planned to kill President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It was effectively a life sentence.

"There's the potential for small cells forming for joint actions at a local level, and it's not a good development," said Sidney Jones, an expert on Islamic militancy at the International Crisis Group in Jakarta.

These militant groups are showing a shift in tactics, away from Western targets such as luxury hotels and night clubs toward domestic institutions such as the police, and symbols of pluralism, in their push for an Islamic state.

A move toward Islamic law would worry investors such as consumer giant Unilever and threaten the long-term unity of an archipelago with sizeable Christian populations in the east.

The country was riven by violent sectarian conflict early last decade, so at stake is continued political and social stability that has encouraged foreign direct investment to pour into the country in recent years.

There has been an escalation of attacks and religious intolerance this year, with police failing to stop mob beatings of the minority sect Ahmadi, the burning of two churches and an attack on a court after demands for a stiffer sentence against a Catholic man guilty of distributing anti-Islamic material.

"The Islamic militant network used to be moved by the international Muslim agenda, but now it is motivated by the dynamics of the Islamic movement in Indonesia," said Andi Widjajanto, a terrorism expert from the University of Indonesia.

While previous militant groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, seen as an arm of al Qaeda and whose goal was a pan-Southeast Asian caliphate, were influenced by issues such as the U.S. presence in the Middle East and attacked Westerners, the new ones are domestically focused on making Indonesia more Islamic.

A series of parcel bombs was sent to police and proponents of pluralism in Jakarta, while groups have used anti-Ahmadi sentiment to whip up popular support, according to the head of the country's anti-terror agency, Ansyaad Mbai.

Police said they found similarities in the parcel bombs to those used by Islamic groups a decade ago in sectarian conflicts in far-flung eastern provinces.

"These are new methods, but we suspect a connection with old players," said police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.

The nervous mood in the capital was highlighted by a advertising stunt that backfired when a firm sent coffins and notes saying "your time has come" to media organizations to promote a book -- only for jumpy editors to call the police.

Militants exploited this by a fake threat to explode 36 bombs when Bashir's verdict was announced, prompting a security clampdown across the capital.

"This is a campaign of fear that at the same time is exhausting the police," said Widjajanto.

IMPUNITY

The changing nature of the militant threat was highlighted at the trial of Bashir, which regularly attracted crowds of not only his supporters, but also members of the FPI -- a Muslim vigilante group mostly known for smashing up bars.

Yudhoyono called this month for adherence for the national pluralist ideology and has called for groups using violence to be disbanded, but none has been so far and few arrests made.

An FPI member, Munarman, who is also a lawyer for Bashir, told reporters outside the court that if Yudhoyono kept pushing pluralism and the disbanding of Islamic groups, then Muslims were ready to "Ben Ali" Yudhoyono -- a reference to deposed Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Such comments in public show the apparent impunity that such groups have, and analysts say the lack of action against them highlights the president's ineffectiveness.

"A feeble response from the administration highlights the president's wariness of irking Islamic parties, as well as weaknesses within the cabinet," said Jakarta-based risk analyst Kevin O'Rourke.

Bashir labeled his 15-year sentence un-Islamic, striking to the heart of an argument the government does not want to have, since being seen as un-Islamic would be a vote loser as parties start to jockey for the 2014 elections.

These issues are also likely to distract the government from planned reforms on land acquisition, infrastructure and labor laws, which investors say are already long overdue.

There are no signs portfolio investment flows have been affected by recent attacks or religious intolerance, with many investors bullish on a G20 economy that could win an upgrade to an investment grade sovereign rating in the next year.

"I think the market has already priced in the threat of terrorism," said Eugene Leow, economist at Southeast Asia's top bank DBS. "It is simply a cost of doing business in Indonesia."

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

View the original article here

Indonesia braces for verdict in cleric terror case (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia's capital will be secured by more than 3,000 police and soldiers for the verdict Thursday in the terrorism trial of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, officials said.

Bashir is accused of helping to organize and fund a jihadi training camp in westernmost Aceh province that involved members of almost every known Indonesian extremist group.

If found guilty, he faces up to life in prison. Bashir, 72, denies involvement with the training camp but repeatedly defends it as legal under Islam.

"He is ready to face the heaviest punishment though, because he believes the verdict is deliberately designed to stop his dakwah (religious outreach)," Bashir's spokesman Hasyim Adbullah said Wednesday.

Jakarta police chief Sutarman said nearly 3,200 security personnel including 335 soldiers will secure the court and surrounding area.

Threats of a bombing campaign in 36 locations across Indonesia to coincide with the verdict have been spread by Twitter and text messages.

Judges in the case also received the bomb threat text messages, said Ida Bagus Dwiyantara, a spokesman for the district court in south Jakarta, where the verdict will be announced.

The Aceh camp was raided in February last year resulting in the arrests of more than 120 suspected terrorists over several months. They allegedly planned attacks on foreigners and assassinations of moderate Muslim leaders such as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Some terrorism experts say the camp's organizers envisaged it as a vehicle for radicalizing the Acehnese people and as the nucleus of a future Islamic state. Despite the camp's failure, it may have provided lessons that will help future attempts to bring extremist groups together under one umbrella.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was thrust into the front lines of the battle against terrorism by the 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

Since then, the government has had some notable successes, killing key terrorist leaders, arresting hundreds of foot soldiers, and limiting the capacity of violent extremist groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah to strike at government and Western targets within Indonesia.

But prisons are proving to be a failing in Indonesia's counter-terrorism strategy with some released militants rejoining their networks and commiting new acts of terror. Ordinary prisoners, meanwhile, are at risk of being radicalized by imprisoned extremists.

It's not the first time Bashir has faced terrorism charges or spent time in detention.

He was arrested almost immediately after the Bali bombings, but prosecutors were unable to prove a string of terrorism-related allegations and reduced his four-year prison sentence to 18 months for immigration violations.

Soon after his release, he was re-arrested and sentenced to 2 1/2 years, this time for inciting the Bali blasts, a charge that was overturned on appeal. He was freed in 2006.

View the original article here

Indonesia arrests 16 over 'cyanide plot' (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia has arrested 16 terror suspects who planned to carry out a mass cyanide poisoning against police, the national police spokesman said Monday.

"We rounded them up in a four-day operation last week. They planned to poison police personnel using cyanide," Boy Rafli Amar told reporters.

"Besides poisoning food at police station canteens, they also planned to inject the poison into mineral water bottles," he said, adding that the suspects revealed the plot during police interrogation.

"This is a new model of terror attack."

In recent months police have arrested dozens of suspects, allegedly part of a new militant cell behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs that were sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials.

The cell was linked to an April suicide bomb attack in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon in West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a massive bomb near a Christian church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

View the original article here

Indonesia police arrest 2002 Bali bombing suspect (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian authorities said Tuesday they arrested a suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings who later ran a jihadi training camp in the Philippines, and two other men with ties to top terrorists after uncovering a new plot against police.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said Tuesday that the alleged Bali bomber, Heru Kuncoro, was captured June 9 in Pekalongan, a town in central Java.

Police say Kuncoro was a facilitator who purchased electronic equipment for the Bali bombing that killed 202 people, mainly foreigners, and thrust Indonesia into the front lines of the battle against terrorism.

He is among the 16 men arrested in recent days in Java, Borneo and Sulawesi on suspicion of plotting to kill police with cyanide.

Some told police they had received military-style training in a mountainous area of Poso in Sulawesi during 2010. They said they were waging jihad against police for killing top terrorist leaders such as Noordin Top — the bomb-making expert who orchestrated all of the major suicide bombings targeting Westerners in Indonesia, including the Bali nightclub blasts.

Extremists in Indonesia have increasingly targeted police in the past year or so as an ongoing security crackdown has disrupted terrorists' ability to launch large-scale attacks.

One of those arrested in the cyanide raids, Budi Untung Wisesa, died during interrogation and police said an autopsy showed he died from a heart attack. Local media quoted relatives saying they had found a wound on Wisesa's head.

Kuncoro fled to the Philippines in 2003 with Dulmatin, an alleged mastermind of the Bali bombing who was killed in an Indonesian police raid last year.

The pair teamed up with Umar Patek, another Bali bombing suspect, to run a jihadi training camp in the southern Philippines. Patek was arrested in Pakistan in January.

Two of men netted in the cyanide raids, identified only as Faisal and Juarni, were believed to be couriers for Dulmatin and Patek and helped to smuggle weapons from the Philippines to Indonesia, Alam said.

He said the two were involved in attacks that killed two policemen last month in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, and an April suicide bombing in Cirebon in West Java that wounded 30 in a mosque packed with police.

Alam said the extent of the cyanide plot became clear on Friday with the arrest of From Santanam, a militant, in the capital Jakarta.

"They had planned to poison food and mineral water provided for police officers in canteens across Java and Bali," he said.

The haul from the raids included four M-16 rifles, pistols, two bottles of cyanide and 29 videos about jihad.

View the original article here

Eight held in Indonesia over poison plot (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia has arrested eight terror suspects who were plotting a mass poisoning of police personnel, according to an anti-terror officer, as one report saying they had planned to use cyanide.

The member of the police's counter-terrorism squad, who did not want to be identified, said six suspects had been arrested late Friday in Jakarta after two were held in Pekalongan city, Central Java, on Thursday.

"They planned to attack police personnel by poisoning food at police office canteens," the source said.

Tempo news website quoted an unnamed senior police official saying the suspects had planned to use cyanide.

Indonesia's police headquarters has yet to issue an official statement on the case.

In recent months police have arrested dozens of suspects allegedly part of a new militant cell behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs which were sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials.

The cell was linked to an April suicide bomb attack in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon in West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a massive bomb near a church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

View the original article here

UK embassy in Indonesia evacuated in security shake-up (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – The British embassy in the Indonesian capital has evacuated its staff after the Jakarta administration ordered anti-terrorist vehicle barriers to be removed from an adjoining road, reports said Friday.

"This is due to circumstances specific to the security arrangements for the site of the embassy building. We're now working off-site in various places," embassy spokeswoman Faye Belnis said.

"It's not because of a specific threat or a change in the threat level in Indonesia," she said.

The Jakarta Globe said the staff were likely to remain working off-site until the mission's new building in Kuningan, South Jakarta, is ready around mid-2013.

Belnis said they were working with the Indonesian authorities to find a solution so they could move back into the premises.

"However, this situation is inevitably causing disruption to our service delivery, which is likely to get more significant the longer the situation continues," she said.

On its website the British embassy said it had to close the building for operational reasons.

Twelve people, including a suicide bomber, were killed when an explosives-laden van exploded in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004.

Extremists targeted Westerners in the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people and 2009 attacks on the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

Indonesia, the biggest Muslim-majority country in the world, is struggling to deal with the threat of homegrown Islamist militants who oppose the country's secular, democratic system and aim to create a caliphate across much of Southeast Asia.

View the original article here

Two terror suspects killed in Indonesia raid (AFP)

JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian police killed two terror suspects during a raid early Saturday, following an arrest of four suspected terrorists a day earlier over a series of recent terror incidents.

"The two men on a motorcycle tried to escape and opened fire on police personnel," national police deputy spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana told AFP, adding that the suspects were killed on the spot.

The incident took place in Sukoharjo in Central Java province at 01:15 am (1815GMT). During the exchange of fire, one of the suspected terrorists shot dead a food seller on the street, the police said.

Police have arrested dozens of suspects allegedly part of a new militant cell believed to have been behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs which were sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials.

The cell was also linked to a suicide bomb attack last month in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon of West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a massive bomb near a church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.

View the original article here

2 suspects, vendor killed in Indonesia terror raid (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia's anti-terrorism forces killed two suspected militants in a predawn raid in Central Java on Saturday, a police spokesman said.

A nearby rice vendor was killed in crossfire during the raid early in the day in Sukoharjo district, said national police spokesman Col. Boy Rafli Amar.

He identified the suspects as Sigit Qurdowi, a leader of a little-known Islamist militant group called Hisbah, and his bodyguard, Hendro Yulianto.

Amar says the two suspects are among fugitives wanted for a church attack in Central Java last year. He says they are also believed to have links to a terrorist network in the West Java district of Cirebon.

"They have planned attacks against police," Amar said, adding that the two resisted arrest.

A number of terrorist suspects have been arrested following a suicide bombing last month at a mosque in Cirebon that wounded 30 people, mostly policemen.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been battling extremists since 2002 when al-Qaida-linked militants attacked two nightclubs on Bali island, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Saturday's raid came two days after the arrest of four other suspects in nearby district of Solo. Their arrest brought to 10 the number of terrorist suspects arrested in connection with the April 15 bombing.

They include Muhammad Basuki, a younger brother of suicide bomber Muhammad Syarif.

Last week, police retrieved six bombs similar to the one used by Syarif, dumped into a river in Cirebon by a suspect after he knew that police were looking for him.

Police believe one of the bombs was prepared for another suicide attack by Basuki.

Police confiscated a number of firearms, grenades and more than 500 bullets and jihad books in the arrests and latest raid.

Brig. Gen. Untung Yoga Ana said the rice vendor, Nur Iman, was believed to be hit by a gunshot fired by Qurdowi on Saturday.

Also last month, police arrested some 20 suspects in connection with a series of mail bombs sent to liberal Muslim activists and a former anti-terrorism chief in March and plot to attack a church during Easter celebrations.

View the original article here