REUTERS, Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:05 AM GMT
Militant Web site shows how to stage attacks in Jakarta
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A Web site purportedly set up under orders from a leading
Asian militant gives instructions on how to shoot foreigners in the streets of the
Indonesian capital or throw grenades at motorists stuck in traffic.
The Web site, called Anshar El Muslimin (www.anshar.net) and seen by Reuters on
Friday, contains diagrams of severa! l locations and why they would be ideal for
attacking people and how to escape.
Police called the website a "work of terror" and said it had been set up by one of three
men named suspects this week over the Oct 1. restaurant bombings on Bali that
killed 20 people.
Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda have carried out a number of car bombings
against Western targets in Indonesia in recent years, but there have been no
shootings of foreigners on the streets, a practise seen in parts of the Middle East.
Antonius Reniban, police spokesman on the resort island of Bali, said a militant he
identified as Abdul Aziz, one of three named suspects over the latest Bali attacks,
had confessed to designing the website, which would soon be shut down.
"This is a work of terror," Reniban said.
Shooting foreigners
A lawyer for Aziz ! said his client had been approached several months ago by several
people including Malaysia's Noordin M. Top, a senior figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a
shadowy group seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.
"Several people came to him and asked him to create that website. One of them was
Noordin M. Top," lawyer Muhammad Rifan told Reuters by telephone.
"But he only received material supplied by others. A webmaster is not responsible for
the content of the website. He is not part of their group."
Rifan added that Aziz had no link to the Bali attacks.
One diagram on the Web site showed a computerised schematic of central Jakarta
where it said foreigners liked to walk from an office and hotel area to a popular
shopping mall. It showed a blue section that it said was the place to attack foreigners.
Another showed how foreigners could be sh! ot when they use overhead pedestrian
bridges to cross Jakarta's busy roads.
It gave specific examples of places in Jakarta where traffic banked up, saying this was
ideal to shoot motorists or throw grenades or small bombs at targets.
"Grenades can be used to make sure the injured are dead, God Willing. Grenades
can be normal grenades or fire bombs so that the car burns," it said.
News of the Web site comes one day after a video was broadcast on local TV
showing a masked militant whom police believe is Top. On the video, found last week
by Indonesian anti-terrorist police, the masked man warns Western countries,
especially Australia, of more attacks.
Ken Conboy, a security expert in Jakarta who has seen some of the Web site
material, said while it was a concern, it did not mean the types of attacks shown
would materialise.
He said militants would still need to find good weapons, funding and willing
participants to carry out such attacks.
"It's obviously disturbing. You don't want to see this sort of stuff on the Internet
because you don't want to inspire anyone," Conboy said.
The video was among several found last week as part of raids that resulted in the
killing of Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, the master bombmaker of Jemaah Islamiah. It
was discovered in central Java at a house police have said was rented by Top.
Police have been hunting Azahari and Top since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed
202 people, including 88 Australians.
Both men have also been blamed for other attacks.
While Malaysian Azahari was Jemaah Islamiah's bombmaker, police say Top is an
expert in recruiting suicide bombers.
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