Indonesia says Asian al Qaeda arm weakened

Indonesia says Asian al Qaeda arm weakened

Agencies, Jakarta/Sydney

A Southeast Asian militant group seen as al-Qaeda's regional arm has been weakened by a series of arrests but, with two of its masterminds on the run, the network still poses a threat, an Indonesian official said on Tuesday.

The International Crisis Group (ICG), a security think-tank, said meanwhile that Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, key members of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), could be tempted to attack another Western target in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

"What is clear is that Azahari and Top have not been arrested and these two masterminds are still roaming around out there," said Ansyaad Mbai, head of the counter-terrorism desk at the office of Indonesia's chief security minister.

"With all of the past arrests, their strength indeed has been reduced. Their capabilities clearly have largely diminished, but I cannot say they are out of the picture," Mbai told Reuters.

"Hunting Azahari is still our top priority and our hope is nobody, including the U.S. and Australia, will become their targets," he added.

Jamaah Islamiyah has been blamed for the 2002 bombings on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and the 2004 bomb attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 Indonesians.

Azahari and Top are accused of masterminding the embassy attack.

The group has also been accused of the 2003 car bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel that killed 12 people. Indonesia has arrested scores of suspects for the various bombings and many of them have been prosecuted and convicted.

ICG head Gareth Evans said on Tuesday in Sydney that the JI is no longer a serious threat to Australia.

The network has had its power greatly reduced by police and intelligence work, Evans says in a speech to be delivered later Tuesday.

He says the International Crisis Group's perception is that "the JI regional division that covered Australia has been effectively smashed by Indonesian police and intelligence operations, well supported by Australian agencies, and that JI itself no longer poses a serious threat in Indonesia or elsewhere".

"The fugitive Malaysian bomb-makers for the embassy attack -- Noordin and Azahari -- may be tempted by another western target in Indonesia, but a household-name U.S. enterprise is seen as more likely than anything identifiably Australian."

Australia ranked "well behind the U.S. and UK in the terrorist wish-lists" although its profile had been raised by Canberra's support for the U.S. and the contribution of troops to Iraq, the former Australian foreign minister says.

"All I can say is that such information and analysis as is available to me suggests that the threat to Australians at home and abroad is real but moderate," Evans says.

Evans says that while the threat of terror attacks should never be underestimated, he is dubious of the intelligence governments receive on terrorism.

"... I maintain a special reservoir of beady-eyed skepticism toward most products of the intelligence community -- especially the most glittering," he says.

"... none of us, least of all governments, know nearly as much as we would like to know, or sometimes say we know...

Evans says governments must not become so spooked by terror threats that they fundamentally change their nation's way of life.

"Extreme and immediate risks may require extreme behavioral change, but lesser risks don't, and it is important that governments try as best as they can to calibrate and explain the risks as they are perceived at any given time," he says.