A former leader of the Jemaah Islamiya terrorist group in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, has praised two of the terrorists killed in raids last weekend. Bashir attended funerals of the two men near Solo, in central Java. In co-ordinated raids last weekend, Indonesian police attacked a house in central Java and a house in Bekasi, near Jakarta. Last month, bombings of luxury hotels killed nine people, including three Australians. Police claim one residence was the nerve centre of those bombings - and also where bombs were being built to attack the home of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. One of the dead men, Air Setiawan, was involved in the Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004.
Banners in the dead men's village praised them as martyrs and said in English that "Jihad still continues". The former leader of Jemaah Islamiya, Abu Bakar Bashir, said that while Air Setiawan and Eko Joko Sardjono may have different ideas about jihad, he hoped "they would be rewarded because they were fighting for Islamic law".