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?"