Slain Indonesian terror suspects planned US embassy attack: Police

[Valin]

Jakarta Globe:

1/3/13

 

Six suspected terrorists killed in a New Years Eve police raid near Jakarta had planned to carry out a string of attacks targeting the US embassy, a church and Buddhist temples, police said Friday.

Following a nine-hour gun battle with the six men in a house on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, police seized a hand-written document revealing the groups targets, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.

 

Take your pistols, holy warriors, and prepare to attack the US embassy, Boy said, reading from the document during a press conference. Suicide attacks were also planned, he said.

The document listed hotels harboring the CIA and anti-terror police officers among targets, while National Police Chief Sutarman said the men also planned to attack a church, police stations and Buddhist temples to avenge anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

 

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Police linked the men to a cell formerly headed by Abu Roban, a suspected militant killed in a raid last year, and Sutarman said the cell was suspected of having links with Al Qaeda.

One of the men, according to documents [seized], was also planning to go to Syria for jihad. He planned to carry out a suicide bombing there, said Sutarman, who goes by one name.

Indonesia was rocked by several deadly terror attacks in the last decade, including the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

 

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[Valin]

Busy Hands Are Happy Hands and Jemaah Islamiyah is Busy Busy Busy

Report: Indonesian Militants Fighting in Syria
Naharnet Newsdesk
1/31/14

Indonesians who have joined fellow extremists fighting in Syria could help reinvigorate a once-powerful militant group responsible for major bombings in the world's most populous Muslim country, a report said.
"The conflict in Syria has captured the imagination of Indonesian extremists in a way no foreign war has before," said a report by Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict published this week.

It is a change of pattern for Indonesian militants who previously have gone to Afghanistan in the late 1980s and 1990s mainly for training, or to the Palestinian territories to give moral and financial support to fellow Muslims, the report said.
"The enthusiasm for Syria is directly linked to predictions in Islamic eschatology that the final battle at the end of time will take place in Sham, the region sometimes called Greater Syria, or the Levant, encompassing Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel," the report added.

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Some of the JI leaders have now taken to non-violent activities such as preaching, inviting criticism from other militant groups.
However, the report warned that the Syrian conflict had convinced many extremists that their local jihad should be set aside for now to devote energy to the more important one abroad, like many JI leaders have argued.

(Snip)