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Jakarta: A group of suspected militants detained by Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit after a cache of bombs was found in Sumatra were plotting to attack Western targets, a police source said yesterday.
The ten were detained in Palembang, 425 kilometres from the capital Jakarta, and other areas in South Sumatra, police said. The raids followed the capture of a suspected militant after a tip-off by authorities in Singapore, national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.
"They were preparing for foreign targets," said the police source, who was involved in the raids.
The source, who asked not to be identified, said police believed the targets included the capital Jakarta.
Anti-terror unit
Heavily armed members of the anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, escorted blindfolded and shackled suspects on a transport plane to Jakarta for interrogation yesterday.
"Nine suspects have been flown to Jakarta and are currently in the Mobile Brigade headquarters," Nataprawira told a news conference, where he only listed the initials of the suspects. He said one suspect was still being questioned in Sumatra.
He said that last Saturday an English teacher had been captured after an alert from Singapore that he was involved in the regional militant Islamist network Jemaah Islamiah (JI). He linked the man to Mas Selamat bin Kastari, a senior JI member who escaped from a Singapore prison in February.
Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry confirmed that a Singaporean had been arrested, but said in a statement that it was not Kastari.
Kompas newspaper reported the Singaporean went by a series of aliases, including Abu Hazam, and had trained in Afghanistan, where he was believed to have met Osama Bin Laden.
"In the raid, Detachment 88 also confiscated five tupperware bombs, 14 pipe bombs, and potassium chlorate," Nataprawira said, declining to comment on whether they might have been targeting foreigners.
But he said the group was suspected of being involved in plans to bomb a cafe in Bukittinggi, a popular tourist resort in West Sumatra, as well as an assassination attempt on a priest in Bandung in West Java in 2005.
He also linked the group — which he said included a student, government worker and the head of an Islamic boarding school — to Noordin Mohammad Top, who is wanted over some of the deadliest attacks in Indonesia by JI.
"I think they've got a couple of big fishes," said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based analyst with the International Crisis Group.
The 20 bombs found appeared to be more sophisticated than some used by militants previously in Indonesia, with 16 ready to use and some packed with ball bearings, a police source said.
Kompas newspaper, which reported that the bombs were found in the ceiling of a house in Palembang, also said police believed the group had considered attacking a location in Sumatra popular with holidaymakers last July before dropping the plan.
More explosives had also been found in Sekayu, about 105 kilometres from Palembang, police said.
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