Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago: A Case Study of the July 2009 JW Marriott & Ritz-Carlton Bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia
The Case Study
This case study examines the history of the Indonesian terrorist network al-Jemaah al-Islamiyah (JI) and its most deadly and violent splinter cell Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, particularly through the lens of the 17 July 2009 terrorist bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta. Focus is given the history of both organizations, their leadership, strategies and tactics, countermeasures employed by Indonesian terrorism authorities and lessons learned from a decade of combating radical Islamists.
dd
Download: CASE STUDY – The July 2009 JW Marriot & Ritz-Carlton Bombings in Jakarta
“Embassy Attack Suspect Arrested.” April 12, 2010.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/embassy-attack-suspect-arrested/story-e6frg6so-1225852516224
INDONESIAN police have arrested a key militant strategist involved in a 2004 bomb attack on the Australian Embassy.
Abu Musa was arrested with five others suspected of ties to a new terror group based in the western province of Aceh.
The six were arrested in Medan, the capital of nearby North Sumatra province, after police spotted a suspicious vehicle parked near a city landmark in the pre-dawn hours with several men inside. The men fled on foot as police attempted to search the van, but Musa was found inside with signs of a previous gunshot wound to his hand, said a police official. The 35-year-old Musa, a suspect in the embassy attack, was wounded in his hand during a firefight with police in Aceh last month.
Four suspects were later arrested in raids on several locations near the vehicle, and a sixth was found hiding in a mosque, provincial police chief Major General Oegroseno said. Police were still looking for two others.
The unnamed police official said all six were on the government’s militant watchlist. He identified one as Yusuf Arifin, 25, who he said received military training in the southern Philippines before going on to work in a new paramilitary training camp in Aceh that authorities raided in February. The other four were wanted in connection with a failed plot to assassinate Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last year, the official said.
Major-General Oegroseno said the six will most likely to be flown to national police headquarters in Jakarta for questioning.
“They were taken into custody for further investigation by counterterrorism police,” he said. “An investigation is still going on to determine if they are part of the terror group in Aceh.”
That group calls itself al-Qa’ida in Aceh, and police say it is a splinter of Jemaah Islamiyah, a south-east Asian offshoot of al-Qaida blamed for deadly bombings in Indonesia in recent years.
Terrorism expert Al Chaidar, a lecturer at Malikussaleh University in Aceh, said, if Musa was among those arrested, it would be a significant achievement for police because he was an expert strategist with JI who later helped set up the al-Qa’ida in Aceh camp that police raided in February. Police have since killed seven alleged militants in raids in Aceh and on the main Indonesian island of Java.
The greatest prize for authorities so far has been Dulmatin, a master bomb-maker who was shot dead last month near the capital, Jakarta. He had been wanted for making and priming one of the bombs that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians, in Bali island in 2002.
AP