Indonesia foils tourist terror plot
2013-01-08 11:30
Jakarta - Terror suspects killed or captured in raids last week were
planning to launch attacks on tourism spots in Indonesia, national police said
Tuesday.
An anti-terror police squad shot dead seven suspects and detained four
others on Sulawesi and Sumbawa islands in central Indonesia last week.
"An investigation revealed that tourism spots in the town of Bima [on
Sumbawa] and Tana Toraja in south Sulawesi were targets," said national
police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar.
Tana Toraja, whose population is mainly Christian, is one of Sulawesi's most
popular tourist destinations.
"We're lucky we managed to prevent the attacks from happening," he
said, adding that a Bima hotel, places of worship and police offices were also
targets.
Police have said the men were connected to a militant training camp and had
been involved in killings of police in Sulawesi's Poso district, a known hotbed
of militant activity.
Raids
In two raids on militant camps in Sumbawa on Saturday, police seized five
pipe-bombs and materials to make explosive devices, such as nitrate urea
powder, scores of nails and batteries.
They also shot dead five men from the group led by the country's most-wanted
terror suspect Santoso, who has allegedly trained young militants to launch
attacks on security forces.
Two suspects were shot dead at a university mosque on Friday in southern
Sulawesi.
Police have strengthened security in Poso since late last year after two police
officers investigating a camp were found with their throats slit. Several small
bomb plots were subsequently foiled.
Indonesia was rocked by a series of deadly terror attacks targeted at
Westerners during the last decade. Most - including the 2002 Bali bombings that
killed 202 people - were blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah.
A crackdown on terrorism has weakened key militant groups and only
low-impact attacks have been carried out in recent years by networks targeting
law enforcement officers.
- SAPA
