[Reuters] As the world battles a spike in assaults and plots by Islamist militants, Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit is drawing praise for stemming a wave of bloody attacks in the sprawling Muslim-majority nation.
Indonesia has foiled at least 15 attacks this year alone and made more than 150 arrests, disrupting plots ranging from suicide attacks in Jakarta to a rocket attack from Indonesia's Batam island targeting Singapore.
Going back to 2010, a Reuters analysis of data shows the elite unit, Special Detachment 88 (Densus 88), has prevented at last 54 plots or attacks in the nation of 250 million people, the world's fourth largest.
"Densus 88 has become better than pretty well any other counter-terrorism group in the world," said Greg Barton, a terrorism export and research professor in Global Islamic Politics at Alfred Deakin Institute in Melbourne.
"They have had an incredible workload and they have become remarkably good at what they do."
In the last six years, there has been only one major attack in Indonesia that caused civilian deaths, when assailants hit a Jakarta mall and police post with gunfire and bombs, resulting in the deaths of three Indonesians and a dual Algerian-Canadian national. All four attackers were also killed in the January 2016 attack.
Between 2002 to 2009, there were nine major attacks by militants, leaving 295 dead and hundreds of others wounded.
Since its formation in 2002, the unit has put a premium on clandestine intelligence gathering. Now much of that intelligence work is done online, by infiltrating and monitoring chat rooms, social media and messaging apps popular with militants.
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#1
Since its formation in 2002, the unit has put a premium on clandestine intelligence gathering.
While here in the US, the administration's emphasis has been on closing GITMO, denying the existence of Islamic terrorism, and the integration of the Muslim Brotherhood into gov't.
#2
they didn't though. They're losing massively. 200,000 Islamists rioted in Jakarta because they think the Koran says a non-Muslim can never govern a muslim.
Christian governor Ahok said that interpretation was wrong so they rioted because he "disrespected the koran"
He's now on trial for blasphemy.
That's what LOSING looks like
Those 200,000 people want sharia
So who gives a flying fat crap if the police foiled an attack or two? They're losing the ideological war.
[AlAhram] Indonesian police potted two suspected Islamist snuffies in a house in West Java on Sunday, a police front man said, in the latest in a series of raids aimed at preventing planned attacks in the Moslem-majority nation.
Two men had been enjugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Cibinong, in West Java, and led police to a house nearby, at the Jatiluhur dam, national police front man Awi Setiyono said. "There were two men there and there was a shootout and we had to shoot them," said Setiyono.
Police seized some weapons and a letter which said the group had planned to launch an attack at some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location on new year's eve, West Java police front man Yusri Yunus told Metro TV.
A police bomb squad was still scanning the area for any explosives, Yunus added.
Earlier this week, Indonesian anti-terrorism police potted three suspects in a shootout on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, and said they had foiled a suicide kaboom planned for the end of the year.
Police have arrested dozens of suspected snuffies in recent months, including a cell on Batam island that planned a rocket attack on neighbouring Singapore.
Indonesia has foiled at least 14 attacks this year alone and made more than 150 arrests.
Indonesia will to deploy 85,000 police and 15,000 military personnel for the Christmas and New Year period, police said.
[AnNahar] Indonesian police Sunday rubbed out two terror suspects and enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! two more, only days after foiling separate plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide kaboom near the capital. The pair were fatally shot at a house in Purwakarta 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of the capital Jakarta after allegedly resisting arrest.
"We ordered them to surrender and even fired warning shots, but they resisted and started to attack our officers with machetes, so we had to take them down," national police front man Awi Setiyono told AFP.
Police raided the house after arresting and interrogating two men on Sunday morning.
The suspects attacked officers with knives but gave up after being shot and maimed, police said. After being interrogated, they led police to a house at a separate location where two more members of the group were hiding.
Several sharp weapons were seized from the house but no explosives were found.
Police said the suspects and the dead men were members of the Jamaah Ansharut Daulah group, a local krazed killer outfit which supports the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and was responsible for a November attack on a church which killed a toddler on Borneo island.
"Their target is to attack coppers, in police posts or even at home. They wanted to attack with sharp weapons such as knives and machetes," Setiyono said.
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Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/26/2016 00:15 ||
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[Gulf Today] Two motorcycle-riding men threw a grenade into a crowd attending the Christmas Eve mass in a Catholic church in North Cotabato province, injuring at least 16 people including a policeman and a three-year-old girl.
Police chief Bernardo Tayong said most of the injured victims were outside the church when the blast occurred on Saturday night in the town of Midsayap. He said one of those wounded was a policeman manning a patrol car deployed in front of the church to provide security for the worshipers attending the Christmas Eve mass. Tayong said a woman who bore the brunt was seriously hurt when the grenade exploded.
Reverend Jay Virador said, "The Holy Mass was abruptly ended, no more concluding prayers as there was a commotion. We are saddened because we are supposed to be spreading love and peace on Christmas Day."
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[FMT] The Abu Sayyaf has demanded RM8.8 million in ransom for five Malaysians it has held hostage for five months in the Philippine island province of Sulu in the Philippines. A report said the militants had rejected intermediaries and directly contacted the families or employers of the crew of Tugboat Serudung 3 it had captured last July off the waters of Lahad Datu, Sabah.
The Philippine military said it cannot confirm the ransom as the Abu Sayyaf had directly negotiated with the family.
Military spokesman Filemon Tan said ground forces were trying to recover all hostages still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf. He said rescue operations would continue even during the holidays.
The Abu Sayyaf is also believed to be holding captive a Dutch, a German, a Korean, four Indonesians, six Vietnamese and five Filipinos.
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Posted by: ryuge ||
12/26/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Gulf Today] Two motorcycle-riding men threw a grenade into a crowd attending the Christmas Eve mass in a Catholic church in North Cotabato province, injuring at least 16 people including a policeman and a three-year-old girl.
