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| Southeast Asia |
| JI forms new military wing |
| 2007-04-10 |
| Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qa'ida-linked extremist group blamed for the Bali bombings, has reportedly formed a new military wing in Indonesia with about 100 trained operatives. According to a report in Indonesia's Tempo magazine, the wing, called the Sariyah or military company, has held training exercises to teach its operatives bomb-making and firearm assembly skills. The wing is headed by the suspected leader of JI, Abu Dujana, who was forced to restructure the group after anti-terrorism police arrested several of his commanders late last year. The commanders were arrested by Indonesia's US-trained Detachment 88, which has led a series of raids against JI, blamed for the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. On Saturday, The Weekend Australian revealed the fears of counter-terrorism experts that JI remained an extraordinarily resilient and lethal terrorist organisation despite the string of recent arrests. They agree there is a need to reassess the thinking about JI's leadership and direction in the wake of last month's arrest of eight suspects on Java and the seizure of nearly 800kg of explosives. "I think you have to assume the organisation may have shrunk less than we thought in the past couple of years," said Sidney Jones, a leading expert on JI. |
| Posted by:Fred |