Police inch closer to Azahari's inner circle

Police inch closer to Azahari's inner circle

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bandung/Surabaya

Police said on Friday the manhunt for the perpetrators of the
Sept. 9 blast outside the Australian Embassy would soon bear
fruit with the arrest of alleged accomplices of Malaysian bomb
experts Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said investigators
had arrested more people in two locations in the western part of
Java and North Jakarta, who were alleged to have helped prepare
the explosives used in the bomb attack and to have harbored the
Malaysian fugitives.

"They were not directly involved in the bombing. For example,
they admitted they knew the packages they were moving from one
place to another were explosives. They also confessed they were
with Azahari right before the explosion," Da'i said.

Azahari and Noordin are believed to have masterminded the 2002
Bali bombings that killed 202 people, the JW Marriott Hotel
attack in Jakarta that claimed 12 lives and last week's blast
that left at least 10 people dead, including one of the
perpetrators.

Entering the second week of the investigation, the police have
arrested 21 people, but one of them, Agung, has been released due
to lack of evidence.

A police source said the latest arrests were four people in
Bandung, one in the Central Java town of Surakarta, one in
Banten, four in Lampung and two in a slum area in North Jakarta.

He said that the two men detained in North Jakarta were
believed to have harbored Azahari and Noordin, and to have helped
the Malaysians transport the explosives used in last week's
bombing.

However, he would not identify those the detained persons.

"After leaving Cengkareng, both Azahari and Noordin moved to
densely populated areas such as those in North Jakarta because
nobody there would be suspicious of newcomers," he said.

The source said that after multiple arrests the police were
now concentrating their manhunt on West Java, including Bandung
and Cirebon.

"We came to this conclusion after every place we searched
outside West Java revealed nothing," he said.

Da'i warned that the bomb attacks would likely continue as the
police still did not know whether the explosives detonated last
week were the last that the terror suspects had.

"We don't know yet whether Azahari has made only one bomb. We
can't stop the threat of bombs unless we capture Azahari and
Noordin. The latter is an expert in persuading people to become
suicide bombers," said Da'i.

Meanwhile, West Java Police said they had readied hundreds of
officers to help the team from National Police Headquarters in
hunting down Azahari, Noordin and the other suspected bombers.

West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Edi Darnadi said he had
deployed at least 20 detectives from his department and hundreds
of detectives from police precincts across the province to search
various areas, including Garut, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis and Banjar.

"We are still concentrating on these areas. We can't say
anything yet, otherwise the suspects will get wind of what we're
doing," said Edi.

The provincial police have distributed 10,000 fliers and
pictures of the alleged embassy bombers across West Java.

East Java Police have also deployed additional personnel to
capture Sulaiman, the teacher of Rahmatullah, who was arrested in
Sidoarjo on Wednesday for his alleged links to Azahari. Sulaiman
and two other men escaped police capture following the arrest of
Rahmatullah.