SE Asia making headway against terror: U.S.

SE Asia making headway against terror: U.S.

Reuters, Manila

Southeast Asia is making headway against the threat of regional
terror, backed by close cooperation and sharing of intelligence,
the commander of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific said on Friday.

"We have made a great deal of progress on terrorism in
Southeast Asia over the last 18 months," Admiral Thomas Fargo
told a news conference, adding that about 140 members of the
Muslim militant group Jamaah Islamiah had been arrested.

Washington says Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), which seeks a strict
Islamic state across parts of Southeast Asia, has links to Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaeda network that is blamed for the attacks on
the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Certainly, the arrests that have been made in places like
Singapore and Malaysia and Indonesia and other countries for that
matter, including the Philippines, have been very important in
diminishing the capability of Jamaah Islamiah," Fargo said.

"As a result of those arrests, we are gaining a bigger picture
of the JI and their operational planning, their ability to
conduct terrorist acts."

But Fargo cautioned that the threat had not been eliminated
entirely.

"We haven't completely solved the problem with the JI and they
do have the capability to conduct further attacks," he said.

Indonesian police have linked the group to bombings on the
resort island of Bali in October that killed more than 200
people, mostly foreign tourists.

Fargo is on a three-day visit to the Philippines, a former
U.S. colony and close ally of Washington, to discuss security
issues with local officials.

U.S. and Philippine troops are due to hold a second round of
joint exercises this year to help local units fight the Abu
Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom gang linked by Washington to al-
Qaeda.