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JAKARTA: Police in Indonesia are closing in on the
suspected militant thought to lead an al-Qaeda-linked terror group
blamed for several bloody attacks, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Abu Dujana, who is believed to
head regional terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), is in Indonesia and
could be detained soon, police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto said.
“He is still in the country
according to intelligence that we have obtained, and we should be
able to arrest him in the near future,” the spokesman said.
Dujana is among Indonesia’s 10
most-wanted people and said to be a close associate of the man who
heads that list, Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top, another suspected
JI militant.
Noordin is also in Indonesia and
his movements “have been limited,” the spokesman said, without
elaborating.
JI has been blamed for a string
of attacks, including the bombings on the resort island of Bali in
2002 and 2005 that killed more than 200 people.
Indonesian antiterror police shot
dead one suspected JI militant and arrested seven others in the past
few days, Adiwinoto said. The arrests led to raids that uncovered
hidden arsenals of guns, ammunition and explosives.
The finds included 20 bombs, he
said, adding the authorities knew where they would have been used
and had prevented potential atrocities.
Indonesia’s police Detachment
88, a US-trained unit, has killed or arrested more than 200 JI
members, according to Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan
Gunaratna. He has described JI as “the main threat group in
Southeast Asia.”
Apart from the Bali bombings, JI
has also been accused of roles in the August 2003 Marriott Hotel and
September 2004 Australian Embassy attacks in Jakarta.
The United States says the group
aims to establish a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia through
violent jihad.
--AFP
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