The Jakarta Post, 8/2/2006 12:27:28 PM
Anti-terror police search villages for suspected militants
BEGAGAN LIMO, East Java (AP): Indonesian anti-terror police searched villages in
East Java Wednesday after they received information that suspicious men had been
spotted in the area, police and witnesses said.
The operations took place in mountain villages in Mojokerto regency, East Java, close
to where alleged terror leader Azahari Husin was shot and killed in a raid last year.
"We have been ordered to search for strangers who locals say have been hanging
around here for the last two months," a plainclothes police officer armed with an
automatic weapon told a reporter in the village of Begagan Limo.
He declined to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Scores of other anti-terror police and army officers were deployed to area, searching
vehicles and homes.
Media reported that Noordin Top, one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorists, may
be in the area, but it was unclear what they were basing their information on.
"I have been told that in the past few days six strangers were found up in the hills,"
said one villager called Suyono. "Their Indonesian was not that clear, they were
bearded and carrying bigbags."
Authorities allege Noordin and Husin masterminded a series of attacks on Western
interests in Indonesia in recent years, including bombings on the resort island of Bali
in 2002 and 2005 that killed more than 220 people, most of them foreigners.
In April, police in central Java shot two others suspected terrorists with links to the
two men, both of whom are Malaysian. Mojokerto is some 800 kilometers east of
Jakarta. (**)
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