Indonesian police say they have arrested nine suspected Jemaah Islamiah members and also foiled plans to attack churches and shops in Jakarta. Police said on Friday they also seized chemicals capable of making a bomb 10 times bigger than those which hit the Indonesian Bali island last year.
| The definition of Islamic success seems to involve bigger bombs, higher body counts... |
The suspects were rounded up over the past week outside Jakarta and in Central Java’s Semarang town in anti-terror operations stepped up after the bombings on Bali. More than 30 people, including senior alleged members of JI, are already in custody for the Bali attacks. Briefing reporters on the latest roundup, police said two suspects were senior JI militants. One of them was Pranata Yuda, also called Mustofa, 42, JI’s former chief for a region that incorporates parts of eastern Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines. "He (Mustofa) was arrested at Jakarta area, from him we got sketches of various bombing plans and he has already prepared the next targets. The targets are public facilities and worship places," police said.
| Not Muslim worship places, of course. Unless they're Shiites, of course... |
Another suspect caught was JI’s Jakarta chief, Ichwanudin, also known as Asim, 28, police said. He shot himself with an M-16 rifle shortly after being arrested on Friday near President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s main private residence. He was handcuffed at the time but managed to grab the rifle, put in a magazine and turn it on himself, police said.
| Quite a trick. Did it at the cop shop, too... |
Officers also seized two M-16s, 22,000 rounds of ammunition, 160kg of TNT, 900kg of potassium chlorate, detonators and books on bomb making in the latest raids. |