JI: Police Raids Uncover a New Wave of Bombings Being Planned

By Zachary Abuza

On Saturday, Indonesian police raided a safehouse in a small town in Central Java where they believed one of JI’s top operatives, a Malaysian national, Noordin Mohammed Top, was hiding. Though he was not there, two individuals were arrested and two people were killed. The police identified one of the dead as a senior JI leader, but provided no additional information. As a result of the captives’ interrogation, investigators uncovered a cache of weapons in a storage unit in the Central Java town of Temanggung. Police found a backpack filled with explosives, a similar design of the bombs that were used in Last October’s triple Bali bombings that killed 20 people. Additional bomb making materials were recovered. Other materials seized were two weapons, a laptop computer, SIM cards for mobile phones and documents.

When Noordin’s accomplice Dr. Azahari bin Hussin was killed in late 2005, Police found a cache of 30-35 bombs in various states of production in his safehouse. All were smaller backpack-style bombs, a clear departure from the group’s modus operendi of using large truck/car bombs. While this shift to smaller bombs could indicate diminished funding and resources, it more likely reflects both a desire to increase the tempo of attacks as well a response to stepped-up counter-terrorism efforts. Despite a large number of arrests, JI remains the single greatest security risk in Indonesia and has shown a stubborn determination to continue perpetrating attacks in an attempt to destabilize the Indonesian government.

In other JI news, today an Indonesian court sentenced two JI members for their roles in supporting JI operations. Joni Akmad Fauzani (32) was sentenced to four years for harboring Noordin in early 2005. Abdullah Sonata (27) was jailed for seven years. Sonata was a key operative in Central Java and was in charge of dispatching operatives to the southern Philippines for training. Sonata was also tasked with recruiting suicide bombers to be used in the Philippines.

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