Indonesian police said Saturday they arrested 10 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked militant Islamic group blamed for last year's Bali bombings. The men were suspected in a series of church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 19 people, as well as five smaller bombings earlier, Chief Detective Lt. Gen. Erwin Mapasseng said. He said the men's "controller" at the time of the 2000 bombings was Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, the alleged ex-operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, who is still at large and believed to be Osama bin Laden's point man in Southeast Asia. Mapasseng did not say when the men allegedly last had contact with Hambali. The latest arrests were made between June 12 and June 16 in towns and cities throughout Sumatra island. He said the men were also believed to have been involved in a bank robbery in Medan city, on Sumatra, on May 6 in which three people were killed. Mapasseng said the detainees had justified their alleged actions by saying they were "in a war situation."
| And I'll guarantee there's more where they came from... |
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