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Southeast Asia
Azahari dead but threat from JI remains
2005-11-10
The apparent death of one of Southeast Asia‘s most wanted Islamic militants, Azahari Husin, was welcomed by security experts and Australia on Thursday but they said it would not eliminate the threat of radical violence.

Police believe Azahari blew himself up on Wednesday after a fierce shoot-out with security forces in the town of Batu in East Java province.

Authorities say the electronics expert designed and supervised the making of the car bomb which caused the most damage in 2002 attacks on the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

A bomb squad was clearing the way for his body and that of other dead militants to be removed on Thursday. "We are still looking. We found pieces of a bomb that could be used," Indonesian police chief General Sutanto told reporters.

He said police had seen three bodies in the rubble-filled house, but there could be more.

One had Azahari‘s physical features, "but we will match his fingerprints and DNA to make sure," Sutanto said, adding while the man‘s body had been blown apart his face was still intact.

Dubbed the "demolition man" by newspapers in his native Malaysia, Azahari was the suspected brains behind several bomb attacks on Western targets in Indonesia and the top bomb maker in Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy network linked to al Qaeda.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, known for his caution, said identification could not be certain yet.

"We need laboratory evidence to make sure," Yudhoyono told reporters in Jakarta.

Ansyaad Mbai, who heads Indonesia‘s anti-terrorist coordinating board, said the group led by Azahari "is very significant" and Wednesday‘s actions "had reduced their capability."

"But when we talk holistically about terrorism, this is not the end. A movement with ideological and political motives won‘t die, even if the leading figure dies," he told Reuters.

Jemaah Islamiah will not be crippled by Azahari‘s death, but it will be a huge advance in the war on terrorism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said.

"If (the death) is confirmed then it is a huge advance, but we are going to be embroiled in this struggle for years," he said.

Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said Azahari was believed to be an inspirational leader for Jemaah Islamiah, and hopefully his death "would diminish its capacity."

"But one ... can‘t assume that those that are left won‘t still have some residual capacity to continue," Ruddock said.

Nick Duder, president director of risk consultants Hill & Associates Indonesian operations, offered similar views.

"Obviously it‘s a great coup for the government to have had this success," he told Reuters. "But I think unfortunately it‘s one of these cases where there‘s probably many more in line after Azahari who are prepared to continue his work ... so we don‘t see the threat as being removed entirely, but diminished."

Police said that during the Wednesday shoot-out, the militants threw bombs and at the end the biggest bomb caused their deaths. One policeman was wounded by gunfire, they said.

In Batu, Anil Warman, 19, who lived across from the crime scene, told Reuters:

"I peeked from home and saw the door handle from the house on the other side fly to the front yard. I saw a motorcycle fall to the ground and pieces of human flesh scattered around it."

East Java province lies adjacent to Bali, where three suicide bombers killed 20 people on October 1 in the latest attack.
Posted by:Dan Darling

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