JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian anti-terrorism squad shot dead two suspected militants and arrested another, police said Saturday. A squad member also died in the shootout, which came a day after the militants killed a police officer following the arrest of a key member of a terror cell, authorities said.
Police received a tip that members of a terror group believed to be responsible for Thursday's killing of the police officer were planning more attacks on Indonesia's main island of Java, national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said.
He said members of an elite anti-terrorism squad tried to capture the three suspects late Friday at a food stall in Central Java's Solo town, the hometown of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, but shot them when they opened fire, killing two and wounding another, who was then arrested. One of the suspects shot dead a member of the anti-terrorism squad, Amar said.
"There are strong indications that they were involved in three terrorist attacks recently against security forces," Amar said, adding that police were investigating whether the suspects were connected to Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid — an organization founded by Bashir and designated a terrorist group by the U.S. in February — or another group.
Two men on a motorbike stormed a police post late Thursday in Solo, fatally shot an officer and fled, Amar said. Hours earlier, an anti-terrorism unit had raided a house in Bandung in West Java province and arrested computer expert Maman Kurniawan, an alleged Muslim militant.
According to Ansyaad Mbai, the head of Indonesia's anti-terror agency, Kurniawan is a key member of a new terror cell in North Sumatra's Medan city, and has helped the group hack into several websites to raise nearly $700,000 to finance their activities.
During the raid, police seized several computers and bank transfer documents that link the Medan group with other terror cells in Solo and Poso on Sulawesi island, Amar said.
Thursday's attack on the police officer came two weeks after two gunmen fired at a police post in Solo, injuring two police officers. A day later, an assailant threw a grenade at another post that wounded two more officers.
Recent terror attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been by individuals or small groups, targeting local "infidels" instead of Westerners, with less deadly results.
The change signals Indonesia's success in tamping down on its main underground terror networks, but also shows how radical groups still operating in the open remain potent breeding grounds where angry young men can turn into attackers.
Indonesia, a secular nation of 237 million, was thrust onto the front lines in the battle against terrorism when the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah attacked two crowded nightclubs on Bali island in 2002, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Though the group carried out several other deadly attacks in the years that followed, it has since been largely dismantled, replaced by several smaller, less organized cells.
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