Indonesia foils terror plot on tourist spots
INDONESIA: 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. 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 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.
AFP
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