Seven dead in Indonesian anti-terror raids

 

Seven dead in Indonesian anti-terror raids

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130510/seven-dead-indonesian-anti-terror-raids

 

 

Indonesian police have shot dead seven terror suspects in raids over the

past two days, including several with alleged links to a plot to bomb the

Myanmar embassy, officials said Thursday.

 

Thirteen suspects were captured alive as an elite police unit swooped on

houses across the country's main island of Java, in the biggest

counter-terrorism operation in Indonesia for months.

 

As well as investigating links to the embassy plot, which has underscored

growing anger in Indonesia at anti-Muslim violence in largely Buddhist

Myanmar, police were targeting suspected terrorist fund-raisers.

 

In the latest raid, police shot dead three suspects at a rented house in

Kebumen district in Central Java and arrested four others early Thursday

after a 15-hour firefight, said national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.

 

"They put up resistance and fired shots from inside," he told reporters,

adding the men were suspected of being part of a network involved in

robberies to fund a militant group called Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT).

 

Pipe bombs, grenades and pistols were seized from the property, said local

police chief Heru Prisasono.

 

Amar said police were also investigating if they were linked to a plot

uncovered last week to bomb the Myanmar embassy.

 

On Wednesday police shot dead three men suspected of involvement in the

Myanmar plot who were holed up at a house at Bandung in West Java. The

killings followed a seven-hour gunbattle, during which the men hurled

homemade bombs at police.

 

In a separate raid the same day, police in the central Java district of

Batang shot dead a man and arrested a second suspected of robbing a

jewellery store to fund terrorist activities.

 

In total, police carried out around 10 raids across Java.

 

The anti-terror operation came after police last week detained two men

suspected of planning to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.

 

Myanmar has been rocked by several recent outbreaks of religious violence,

which have left many minority Muslims dead and tens of thousands displaced.

 

Indonesia has mounted a crackdown against terror networks over the past

decade in the wake of several deadly attacks on Western targets, and key

militant groups have been weakened.

 

But the Mujahidin Indonesia Timur -- East Indonesia Holy Warriors -- has up

till now largely evaded the crackdown, hiding out in the jungle around Poso

on Sulawesi island.

 

==========================================

(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this

message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to

these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed

within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with

"Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.

The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The

Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain

permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials

if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting,

teaching, scholarship, and research." Section 107 establishes four criteria

for determining whether the use of a work in any particular case qualifies

as a "fair use". A work used does not necessarily have to satisfy all four

criteria to qualify as an instance of "fair use". Rather, "fair use" is

determined by the overall extent to which the cited work does or does not

substantially satisfy the criteria in their totality. If you wish to use

copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

 

THIS DOCUMENT MAY CONTAIN COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. COPYING AND DISSEMINATION IS

PROHIBITED WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNERS.