Posted on 10/30/2003 7:14:24 AM PST by TexKat
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police arrested one of the most wanted men in Southeast Asia as he and an accomplice were preparing suicide bombings of foreign targets, a top officer said on Thursday.
But police said two other men on regional most wanted lists slipped through their fingers as security forces closed in on their hideout just hours later.
In the first raid at dawn on Wednesday, police swooped on two men with explosives in a hotel room in the town of Cirebon, 140 miles east of Jakarta, arresting a man identified only as Tohir and an accomplice, who had attached bombs to their bodies in a bid to avoid capture.
"They were reaching to their backpacks when police besieged them, but failed to trigger the switch," Erwin Mappaseng, head of the national police criminal investigation department, told a news conference.
He said the men had selected targets for an attack, including a foreign bank on a busy street in the nearby city of Bandung, southeast of Jakarta.
Two Malaysian men, including top electronics expert and bombmaker Azahari, wanted in connection with last year's Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the August Marriott hotel blast that killed 12, escaped a police raid with a quantity of explosives in Bandung later on Wednesday night.
He was accompanied by a man identified as Noordin, whose name also features prominently on most wanted lists, police said.
Tohir, who was captured in the morning raid, is a key suspect in the Marriott blast in Jakarta, national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar told reporters.
"We have detained two people, Tohir and Ismail," Bachtiar said. He said Tohir was one of those who was ready to be part of a suicide squad to attack the Marriott.
The police chief had previously said Tohir was among five of Southeast Asia's most wanted militants thought to be hiding in Indonesia. Police said Ismail was believed to have helped to make the Marriott bomb along with Azahari.
The Marriott blast, like the Bali bombings a year ago, has been linked to Southeast Asian militant Muslim network Jemaah Islamiah, which has ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group.
"Based on confessions from the two men (Tohir and Ismail), Azahari was planning to carry out more attacks but hopefully with the arrest of these two men he may stop the plan," Bachtiar said.
One suicide bomber was believed to have died in the Marriott blast. He was driving the car that was packed with explosives and blew up in the forecourt of the hotel.
More than two dozen people have already been detained over the Marriott case.
SECURITY STILL POOR
A senior U.S. official in Indonesia welcomed the arrests, but said the security situation in the world's most populous Muslim nation had not improved since the Marriott blast.
"I think that situation pretty much remains as it was. Our travel warning has not substantively changed since the days before the Marriott bombing," said the official, who declined to be identified.
"I think (the arrests) are quite significant and I expect and hope they will lead to further productive leads," he told reporters.
Indonesian officials have said security was being tightened ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began this week, and Christmas.
Indonesia has said it believes five of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects are hiding within its borders.
Officials named two of the region's top bomb makers -- suspected in the Bali attack and the Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing -- as Malaysian Azahari and Indonesian Dul Matin.
Also on the list were Indonesian Zulkarnaen, who is believed to be in charge of military affairs for Jemaah Islamiah, Noordin Mohammed Top and Tohir, wanted since the Marriott blast.
Indonesia has arrested about 100 suspected Muslim militants and convicted more than 20 for involvement in the Bali blasts, which put the country and its fringe element of radical Muslims under the global microscope. (Additional reporting by Tomi Soetjipto and Jerry Norton)
Indonesian police have arrested one of the most-wanted men in Southeast Asia, a key suspect in the August 5 bombing of the U.S.-run Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, a senior official said October 30, 2003. The man, identified only as Tohir, is seen in this police handout and was among five people arrested In Indonesia's West Java on Wednesday, national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar told reporters. (Reuters - Handout)
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