Ongoing Counter-terrorism Raids in Indonesia
By Kenneth Conboy
The Indonesian police are on a roll with continued raids against suspected militants in East Java earlier this week--and more expected over the coming days. Readers will recall that the police counter-terrorist unit, Detachment 88, conducted an initial raid on 19 March (local time) against a Jemaah Islamiyah safe house in Jogjakarta. Although a senior JI member apparently escaped, seven of his colleagues were detained, and all subsequent raids have been a result of information they revealed during interrogations.
On 21 March, two separate follow-on operations in Central Java resulted in the discovery of a major explosives/arms cache, along with the arrest of a militant who had been linked to communal violence in the province of Central Sulawesi.
On 26 March, raids in Surabaya, East Java, resulted in the discovery of another cache in Indonesia's second largest city, this with more than 12 kilos of explosive.
Several officials have stated that the explosives and weaponry appear to have been destined for Central Sulawesi, where JI has been trying (with minimal success) to re-ignite a jihad as of late. There is as yet no clear evidence that JI was preparing to use the material for an operation against foreign nationals in Jakarta or Bali.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/mt/pings.cgi/3815
