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Five suspected terrorists were reportedly killed during police raids at two different locations in Bali late on Sunday. Police have yet to issue an official statement on the nature of the raids and details on the casualties. The first raid took place at around 10:15 p.m. in a budget hotel, Laksmi, on Jl. Danau Poso 99X, Sanur. The area is known as one of the most famous red-light districts in Bali, where people can easily obtain a cheap room from staff at budget hotels who rarely ask for valid identification from their guests. Neighbors said that they heard a burst...

SNIPPET: "The police arrested two terrorist suspects at the house: Fahri Tanjung, also known as Hilmi, and Hamzah. The police also found chemicals they believed were to be used to make explosives and an activated hand-made high-explosive bomb inside the house. West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutarman said the police detonated the high-explosive bomb on location after failing to defuse it. Books and VCDs on jihad, as well as an air rifle were seized as evidence. One of the VCDs was titled Afghanistan jihad: The journey of the oppressed. Sutarman said the suspects had been involved in acts of...

Bali bombing cleric attacks western tourists By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 25/03/2008 Western tourists in Indonesia are "maggots, snakes and worms" who should be beaten up, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings has told hardline Islamic followers. Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric who was convicted of conspiracy over the Bali bombings but later cleared and released from prison after 26 months, said the island resort had been overrun by scantily-clad tourists who deserved to be attacked for their immorality. "Worms, snakes, maggots... those are animals that crawl. Take a look at Bali... those infidel...

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested Wan Min Wan Mat, a key leader of Kumpulan Militant Malaysia (KMM) during an operation in Kota Baru Friday morning. Inspector-general of police Tan Sri Norian Mai said the 42-year-old former Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer was arrested at about 9.30am. Police are looking for eight suspects who are key KMM members and are offering a RM50,000 reward for information on each leader.

Asia Times Online, 6306 The Center,  Queen’s Road,  Central, Hong Kong Southeast Asia  Indonesia: The enemy within http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/DJ15Ae02.html By Bill Guerin JAKARTA - For Indonesia the pretense is well and truly over.  President Megawati Sukarnoputri, reading out a prepared seven-point official statement more than 13 hours after the carnage in Bali occurred, said the government expressed its condolences to the relatives of victims in the brutal and inhumane violence, which was against the existing laws, religious teachings and moral values adopted by the Indonesian nation.  In the so-called Island of the Gods where 95 percent of the 3 million population are...

JAKARTA (AP): A former U.S. State Department interpreter testified on Thursday that one month before the 2002 Bali bombings, Washington urged Indonesia to arrest and send to America the Islamic cleric accused of inspiring his followers to carry out the attack. The witness, Fred Burks, told a court that a U.S. envoy made the appeal in a meeting with former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who took a breath and thought for a moment before saying, "I cannot fulfill the request of the U.S. president." Burks said the envoy, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, later warned that if the cleric,...

INGAPORE, Jan. 25 — Shortly after the United States began bombing Afghanistan on Oct. 7, a 30-year- old Indonesian traveling on a false Filipino passport slipped into this tightly controlled city-state carrying a plan to strike back at America. His mission, investigators say, was to activate a "sleeper cell" of Islamic militants who had long been waiting for a call from Al Qaeda's leaders in Afghanistan. This group, which had been loosely organized for eight years, began planning to blow up the embassies of the United States, Israel, Australia and Britain, the investigators say. The plot was foiled when 13 ...