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| Down Under |
| Australian JI leader was close to bin Laden |
| 2004-11-02 |
| A new book, entitled Shadow of Swords, claims the former head of the Australian branch of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was also a senior member of al-Qaeda. Author Sally Neighbour has alleged that Abdul Rahman Ayoub ran the Australian branch of JI from Sydney with his brother before returning to Indonesia after the Bali bombings. Ms Neighbour has described Mr Ayoub as a very experienced militant. "He had been in Afghanistan for five years - had fought alongside Osama Bin Laden, knew senior figures in the al-Qaeda leadership personally and quite well, and also helped to write the al-Qaeda training manual on terrorist warfare," she said. "So the Australian branch was no remote offshoot. It was very directly and intimately connected at a high level with both JI and al-Qaeda." Ms Neighbour said she has based a lot of the book on interviews. "And that is interrogation reports or interviews of the Bali bombers, for example, and other arrested JI figures," said Ms Neighbour. "They've been my main source. I've also had a lot of assistance from Australian authorities." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |