Banks ordered to block Indonesians' assets

Banks ordered to block Indonesians' assets

USA: The government ordered U.S. banks to block any financial assets in the United States of three Indonesians who are alleged to be leaders of the al-Qaeda-lined Southeast Asian terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI).

The Treasury Department added on Thursday Zulkarnaen, Abu Rusdan and Joko Pitono to its blocking list, which names terrorist suspects and seeks to freeze their assets.

Zulkarnaen, whose real name is Aris Sumarsono, is believed by regional security officials to have stepped in as Jamaah Islamiyah's operations chief in 2003 after the group's main contact with al-Qaeda, an Indonesian called Hambali, was arrested.

Abu Rusdan was imprisoned last year for helping hide one of the suspects in the 2002 nightclub blasts on Indonesia's Bali island that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Washington believes Rusdan replaced cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as Jemaah Islamiyah's spiritual leader after Ba'asyir was arrested in 2002.

Regional security officials say Pitono, also known as Dulmatin, is a top bombmaker for the group and is a suspect in several Jamaah Islamiyah bomb plots, including Bali. He is believed to be hiding in the Philippines. --AP