| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Top has his own splinter terror group |
| 2006-05-06 |
| SOUTHEAST Asia's most wanted terrorist, Noordin Mohammad Top, has built his own following of diehard loyalists separate to the Jemaah Islamiah network. But his behaviour since last year's second Bali bombing suggests he is running short of money and experienced operatives, says a report by the International Crisis Group. Last week Top, wanted over a string of bombings, including the two Bali attacks, again eluded Indonesian police as they mounted a pre-dawn raid on a house sheltering close associates in Wonosobo, central Java. Two men killed in the raid, Baharudin Soleh (alias Abdul Hadi) and Gempur Budi Angkoro (alias Jabir) were trusted lieutenants of the shadowy 38-year-old Malaysian terrorist. "The loss on April 29 of the men who served as both couriers and recruiters has to be a significant blow," the ICG report concludes. Hadi had been entrusted by Top with the task of "ripening" the suicide bomber who attacked the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004. The ICG study shows how Top has created his own group of bombers outside the mainstream JI network while on the run from the biggest counter-terrorist hunt ever mounted in Indonesia. Top now calls his splinter grouping "al-Qa'ida for the Malay archipelago", although he still regards himself as the leader of JI's military wing. "Noordin may think of himself as JI, but since the 2003 Marriott bombing has been running his own show that is seen as a deviant splinter by many in the JI mainstream," said Sidney Jones, the ICG's Southeast Asia project director and the world's leading expert on JI. According to the ICG report, Top is not a strikingly impressive figure. He is neither a skilled orator nor does he speak Arabic. Although he is a Salafi Muslim, his religious knowledge is limited. "He has a knack for surrounding himself with devoted followers who possess skills that he does not, however, and his ability to elude police for so long has enhanced his stature," it says. It argues that Top aspires to head a "tightly organised military machine with cells across Southeast Asia designed to mount terror attacks on the US and its allies, 'kafirs', anti-Islamic governments including Indonesia, and other enemies of Islam". Paradoxically, his constant movement could enhance his ability to set up new terrorist cells although it means less direct supervision of actual operations. The study finds that while JI continues to provide the core of Top's new network -- both Hadi and Jabir were JI members since 2004 -- he has reached out to young men from other organisations with no links to JI. Terror expert and author of Inside al-Qa'ida Rohan Gunaratna told The Weekend Australian it was only a matter of time before Top was killed in similar circumstances to those leading to the death of his compatriot and fellow bombmaker Azahari bin Husin. Azahari died in November last year during a shootout with police at his hideout in a remote village in East Java. Last week, when Indonesian police blew open the door of the modest house in the Wonosobo raid, they also discovered an explosive device that was "active" and ready to use. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |