INDONESIA: Muslim militants to be transferred to Jakarta for further investigation

Indonesian authorities have captured on Tuesday (April 03) several men linked to a Southeast Asian Islamic militant group in Indonesia, including a suspect connected to the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta. In a joint operation with Australian police in March, Indonesian police killed one suspected militant during raids in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces, Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement. It said those captured were linked to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network, blamed by police for a series of bombings in Indonesia. The detainees were believed to be close to JI military commander Abu Dujana, AFP said. Indonesian National Police (INP) also found a huge cache of weapons, explosives and chemical materials that could be used to make a bomb larger than the one that killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002. According to the AFP one of those arrested was believed to have links to the September 9, 2004 bombing of the Jakarta embassy, which killed 10 Indonesians and wounded about 200 people. Indonesian and Australian police have worked closely together on investigations into Muslim militants since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians. Authorities say several important militant leaders remain at large. Finding them is complicated by the operation of individual cells whose members do not necessarily know about the activities of others, and by ideological and tactical splits. An estimated 85 percent of Indonesians are Muslims. Most are considered moderate, but a militant minority has been increasingly vocal.

ITN Source | April 4, 2007

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