Indonesia, Saudi Arabia make gains against Islamist militants

In the past week US-backed forces in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have made major headway combating Al Qaeda-linked groups that operate within their borders.

South Africa's news24 reports that Indonesia's security services announced last week that they arrested two leaders of the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) earlier this month. The group is believed responsible for a series of attacks inside the country during the first half of this decade, reports Reuters. Long criticized for poor performance dealing with the Al Qaeda-aligned JI, Indonesian security services are now receiving praise for appearing to get the upper hand on domestic militants.

But the Associated Press reports that Indonesian officials are warning that more attacks are still a real possibility despite the arrests of Zarkasih, described as the group's leader, and Abu Dujana, alleged to be its military chief and the leader of an elite JI unit.

Indonesia's top detective, Lt. Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, said the hunt for other terrorist suspects was continuing on Java and Sulawesi islands, where the network was trying to rebuild.

"Jemaah Islamiyah hasn't been destroyed," he said, amid claims that they continue to collect guns, ammunition and explosives. "They are still recruiting people and holding military training" in the southern Philippines.

JI has had a hand in every major terrorist attack in Indonesia since the mid-1990s, including an October 2002 bombing on the tourist island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and other bombings that claimed at least 50 other lives.

Mr. Zarkasih's arrest quickly followed the arrest of Mr. Abu Dujana in Central Java, and The New York Times reports that Indonesian officials are convinced that Zarkasih, previously unknown to the public, was crucial to the group's operations.

The two arrests deal a major blow to the organization. The arrest of Abu Dujana seriously weakens its military wing and will make Indonesia more secure from terrorists' attacks, analysts and law enforcement officials said. And, they added, the capture of Zarkasih will hinder the already fractured network's ability to rebuild.

"He is the emir of Jemaah Islamiyah," Col. Petrus Golose of the national police force, a member of the antiterrorism team, said of Zarkasih in an interview. "He controls everyone; everyone important reports to him."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports in an interview with Sidney Jones, the leading authority on JI, that the respect and credibility of Abu Bakar Bashir, who is considered the religious leader of the group and is now living free on Java, could be damaged by the fallout from the arrest. Mr. Bashir, who publicly encourages Muslims to engage in attacks on Western targets, has long denied involvement with JI.

"He's already denying some of the statements that Abu Dujana has been releasing. So I think it's huge and I think it's going to diminish Abu Bakar Bashir's credibility, even among his own followers," Ms. Jones said.

But in other interviews compiled by the Singapore-based MediaCorp's Today website, Jones also cautioned that the group has proven resilient when leaders have been arrested in the past.

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