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| Southeast Asia |
| Former JI member confirms scope of the group |
| 2005-11-25 |
| The shadowy regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) did exist in Southeast Asian countries, an Indonesian man claimed himself to be a former key JI member said Monday. Nasir Abas, the "former militant", told local media in the southern Java town of Yogyakarta that JI network spread over Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. "But I don't know if JI still exists today because I'm no longer a JI member," Nasir was quoted by the Detikcom online news service as saying. For JI members, suicide bombings remain a contentious issue, some supported them while others strongly opposed, said Nasir, who claimed he used to be the leader in the JI area three covering Malaysia's Sabah, Philippine's Mindanau and Indonesia's Poso. Nasir, who joined JI from 1987 to 2003, said bombings on civilian targets were heresy for JI members but "some others agree to target civilians." Nasir is the brother-in-law of Ali Ghufron alias Mukhlas, who led the October 2002 bomb attacks on Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. Mukhlas has been convicted and already in death row along with two other bombers. "Azahari was also a JI member," Nasir said, referring to the master bomb-maker from Malaysia who was killed in a shootout in an East Java town earlier this month. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |