Militant website shows how to stage attacks in Jakarta
Militant website shows how to stage attacks in Jakarta
Reuters, Jakarta
A website purportedly set up under orders from a leading Asian
militant gives instructions on how to shoot foreigners in the
streets of the Indonesian capital or throw grenades at motorists
stuck in traffic.
The website, called Anshar El Muslimin (www.anshar.net) and
was still active on Friday, contains diagrams of several
locations and why they would be ideal for attacking people and
how to escape.
Police called the website a "work of terror" and said it had
been set up by one of three men named suspects this week over the
Oct. 1. restaurant bombings on Bali that killed 20 people.
Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda have carried out a number
of car bombings against Western targets in Indonesia in recent
years, but there have been no shootings of foreigners on the
streets, a practice seen in parts of the Middle East.
Antonius Reniban, police spokesman on the resort island of
Bali, said a militant he identified as Abdul Aziz, one of three
named suspects over the latest Bali attacks, had confessed to
designing the website, which would soon be shut down.
"This is a work of terror," Reniban said.
A lawyer for Aziz said his client had been approached several
months ago by several people including Malaysia's Noordin M. Top,
a senior figure in Jamaah Islamiah, a shadowy group seen as the
regional arm of al-Qaeda.
"Several people came to him and asked him to create that
website. One of them was Noordin M. Top," lawyer Muhammad Rifan
told Reuters by telephone.
"But he only received material supplied by others. A webmaster
is not responsible for the content of the website. He is not part
of their group."
Rifan added that Aziz had no link to the Bali attacks.
One diagram on the website showed a computerized schematic of
Jakarta where it said foreigners liked to walk from an office and
hotel area in Kuningan to a popular shopping mall. It showed a
blue section that it said was the place to attack foreigners.
Another showed how foreigners could be shot when they use
overhead pedestrian bridges to cross Jakarta's busy roads.
It gave specific examples of places in Jakarta where traffic
banked up, saying this was ideal to shoot motorists or throw
grenades or small bombs at targets.
"Grenades can be used to make sure the injured are dead, God
Willing. Grenades can be normal grenades or fire bombs so that
the car burns," it said.
News of the website comes one day after a video was broadcast
on local TV showing a masked militant whom police believe is Top.
On the video, found last week by Indonesian anti-terrorist
police, the masked man warns Western countries, especially
Australia, of more attacks.
Ken Conboy, a security expert in Jakarta who has seen some of
the website material, said while it was a concern, it did not
mean the types of attacks shown would materialize.
He said militants would still need to find good weapons,
funding and willing participants to carry out such attacks.
"It's obviously disturbing. You don't want to see this sort of
stuff on the Internet because you don't want to inspire anyone,"
Conboy said.
The video was among several found last week as part of raids
that resulted in the killing of Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, the
master bombmaker of Jamaah Islamiah. It was discovered in central
Java at a house police have said was rented by Top.
Police have been hunting Azahari and Top since the 2002 Bali
bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Both men have also been blamed for other attacks.
While Malaysian Azahari was Jamaah Islamiah's bombmaker,
police say Top is an expert in recruiting suicide bombers.