Police hunt Jakarta bomb suspect

Indonesian police hunting Noordin Mohammed Top, the man wanted in connection with the recent bombing of two luxury hotels in Jakarta, have been involved in a gun battle in Central Java.

Local media reported the incident was ongoing on Friday, with local sources telling Al Jazeera that Noordin was likely in the village where the shooting was taking place.

Nanan Soekarna, the national police spokesman, said police were involved in a shooting incident with suspected Islamic fighters at a house outside the village of Temanggung.

"There was shooting between the special detachment team and the people inside the house," Soekarna said, referring to an elite police unit involved in the shooting.

Indonesia's TV One quoted an officer as saying the man who rented the house in question resembled Noordin.

Police raid

It was earlier reported, though without official confirmation, that Noordin had been arrested.

Al Jazeera's Steph Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said the gun battle was still going on after dark on Friday.

"Police are using spotlights on the house where four people are hiding. Local media is reporting that it is 80 per cent sure one of the men in there is Noordin Top but the police is still denying it.

"It is unclear if anyone has been hurt or killed."

Noordin is one of two people suspected of being involved in the blasts at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital last month.

Nine people were killed and more than 50 others injured in the blasts on July 17.

Jakarta blasts

While Noordin has not been officially named as being behind the Jakarta bombings, officials and analysts have made clear he is the chief suspect.

Vaessen said: "It's still not confirmed that he was actually connected to the latest bombings at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotel but ... according to terror experts, there's only one man in Indonesia who's capable of doing it

Noordin was a key member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaeda-linked group that wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.

But his group broke away from JI after an alleged falling-out with the leadership over the targeting of civilians.

JI is blamed, among other attacks, for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people.

Noordin is thought to have been behind attacks on the Jakarta Marriott in 2003 and the Australian embassy in 2004, and also on a series of restaurants in Bali in 2005 in which more than 20 people were killed.

source: english.aljazeera.net

Abu Ba`asyir doesn`t believe Noordin M Top behind Jakarta bombings

Bulukumba, South Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - Abubakar Ba`asyir, head of the Ngruki Al-Mukmin Muslim Boarding School in Solo, said he did not believe the recent hotel bombings in Jakarta were the work of fugitive terror mastermind Noordin M Top.


"The bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta were engineered by the CIA (of the United States) to cause the Indonesian government to increase its pressure on the struggle of Muslims," he said.


Ba`asyir was commenting on the posting on the Internet of a statement attributed to Noordin M Top claiming responsibility for the July 17 hotel bombings. He spoke to reporters before giving a religious lecture at Bulukumba`s Agung Mosque on Thursday.


He said the two bombed hotels in Jakarta were US-owned and protected by maximum security systems making it impossible for outsiders to bring in explosives. "Therefore, I believe the CIA engineered the attacks so as to create another tragedy for which Muslims could be blamed," he said.


Asked why in media reports on terrorist activity he was often linked to the violence, Ba`asyir said he did not approve of the resort to terror bombings to further the aims of Islam. "This was all orchestrated by the US in order to make Muslims in the world hate me," he said.


Meanwhile, the local organizers of Ba`asyir`s visit in Bulukumba had initially expected his lecture at the Agung Mosque to be attended by about 2,000 Muslims but in reality only about 500 showed up. Most of the audience were members of Bulukumba`s Islamic Community Forum (FUI). (*)

source:
ANTARA

Messages and implications of the Jakarta bombings

Jakarta Bombing

Benny YP Siahaan , Geneva | Opinion

The recent bombings in Jakarta have effectively reaffirmed our fear that terrorists still exist and are capable of inflicting harm. Perhaps these are the main messages behind their atrocious acts.

By placing an improvised explosive device (IED) in a backpack and another in a small traveling suitcase, the bombers took nine lives and injured numerous others.

In this instance, when compared to the Bali bombings and other prior terrorist attacks in Indonesia, the casualties are fewer.

However it should be remembered that in many acts of terrorism the primary objective is to inflict psychological harm, which is often far greater than any actual physical damage. So what are the real long-term consequences for Indonesia?

Many analysts have suggested that in the short term, neither the economic nor political stability of Indonesia is likely to be threatened by the recent attacks.

The hotel chains hit in the attacks are often frequented by Western business people and seem to have become a favourite target for those wishing to commit acts of terrorism in Indonesia and worldwide.

The op-ed article written by Noor Huda Ismail and Carl Ungerer in The Australian (July 17), the same day as the terrorist bombing in Jakarta, is an important contribution to the issue at hand and needs further consideration. In particular, it suggested that Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) may still have the capability to relaunch an attack.

It is true that since the Bali bombings, the Indonesian government has successfully undermined JI and its factions by exposing its financial links from outside supporters, cutting its ability to purchase heavyweight explosive chemicals and devices. This pressure forced JI to operate under the radar and continue launching cheap attacks at the easiest targets with the maximum possible damage.

Such low cost and low level attacks will perhaps become JI's main method for future attacks, considering they are relatively inexpensive and straightforward to carry out.

What can be done in the face of this possibility?

The methodology and targets of terrorists have continued to change over the years, but targeting Western hotels and using smaller explosive devices seems to be a growing trend.

It recent years, the extent of the chaos caused or damage inflicted seems to be less important than the fact attacks are actually still occurring at all. The message of perpetual violence and their capability to cause suffering are more pertinent to terrorists than the magnitude of any one attack.

The attacks also raise the question of how to protect soft targets such as hotels. I use the term soft targets because places like Western embassies, for example, are becoming increasingly difficult to attack as security has been lifted to extreme levels.

Finding more advanced methods of security for protecting soft targets such as hotels will remain a key necessity. Indeed, merely increasing traditional security measures for particularly vulnerable targets will only induce terrorists to wait, perhaps even several years, until the target becomes less alert.

In the age of innumerable terrorist threats, the responsibility for security prevention no longer only resides with the authorities as they cannot be everywhere at the same time, especially given the abrupt and secretive nature of terrorism.

On par with this, the public also have the responsibility of not only ensuring their own personal security but also of becoming increasingly more alert about their surroundings. Nonetheless, such advanced security measures should not also make our lives more difficult or make us terribly paranoid.

The writer is an Indonesian diplomat based in Geneva. These are his personal views.

source: The Jakarta Post