Lethal second-liners can take over from slain JI bomber: Analysts

Lethal second-liners can take over from slain JI bomber: Analysts

Roberto Coloma, Agence France-Presse, Singapore

The killing of fugitive bomber Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi in the
Philippines is a blow to the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group but
deadly second-liners are set to take over, security experts said
on Monday.

The Indonesian-born, Afghan-trained explosives specialist was
a key figure in the JI, a Southeast Asian militant organization
linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. He was shot dead on
Sunday on Mindanao island.

Singapore, where al-Ghozi was allegedly plotting attacks in
late 2001, as well as Australia, which lost 88 citizens in last
year's Bali bombings, welcomed the development.

Al-Ghozi was a "dangerous JI operative" a spokeswoman for
Singapore's ministry of home affairs told AFP, adding that
removing him "would be significant to the campaign against the
threat of terrorism in the region."

But analysts warned against expecting too much, especially
with the emergence of suicide bombers in the region.

"I don't think it will make much of a difference because there
are still other bomb makers that JI can count on," said Clive
Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian
National University.

"It might be significant in terms of the morale of the
Philippine National Police force," he said.

The timing was certainly fortuitous.

Al-Ghozi, who escaped from a Manila police jail cell in July,
was killed on the first anniversary of nightclub bombings in
Bali, carried out by fellow JI members, which left 202 people
dead.

His killing came less than a week before U.S. President George
W. Bush was to visit the Philippines for talks with President
Gloria Arroyo, a staunch American ally seeking re-election and
asking for more U.S. military aid.

Bruce Gale, an analyst at security consultancy Hill and
Associates in Singapore, said the death of al-Ghozi "would be
considered a major coup for the intelligence services in the
Philippines."

"It would be particularly good for Arroyo now that you've got
Bush arriving. She can present him with a major achievement," he
said.

Gale said al-Ghozi "was a very important figure in the JI and
it seems hard to believe that he was merely on the run ... he was
probably planning something."

Al-Ghozi, who was serving a 17-year jail term for explosives
possession when he escaped, allegedly masterminded the bombing of
the Manila light rail system in December 2000, killing 22 people.

According to Singapore's ministry of home affairs, al-Ghozi
and an al-Qaeda operative directed JI members in Singapore to
conduct surveillance of U.S. and other targets in October 2001,
after the al-Qaeda attacks in New York and Washington.

Six truck bombs would be used to hit the U.S., Israeli,
British and Australian embassies, as well as U.S. firms, in the
aborted plot. Since then, some 30 allegedly JI members have been
arrested in Singapore.

Al-Ghozi was part of the vanguard of Southeast Asian Muslim
militants trained in Afghanistan as well as the southern
Philippines.

More than 200 alleged JI officers and operatives have been
arrested across Southeast Asia, but hundreds more are feared to
be out in the field.

The senior JI figures neutralized so far include Hambali, also
an Indonesian, who was arrested in Thailand in August and is now
in U.S. custody. He is said to be the operations chief of the JI
and al-Qaeda's Asian pointman.

In addition to the Bali bombers, radical Indonesian Muslim
cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of being the spiritual leader of
the JI, has been sentenced to four years in prison for plotting
to overthrow the Indonesian government.

Bilveer Singh, a political science associate professor at the
National University of Singapore, said that "if one wants to
discern a pattern, it is quite clear that the first generation JI
terrorists and associates are being successfully hunted down."

"However, my worry is not this group. I worry more about the
second and third generation JI and other groups that are active
in the region, and something we know so little about," he said.

"These groups might even be spurred and triggered to action by
the destruction of the first generation terrorists," he said.
"How are we going to deal with a far more lethal, motivated,
dedicated and angry lot, many of whom have suicide bombing
squads?"