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Terror chief outgrows Jemaah Islamiyah
By ROB TAYLOR
06may06
ISLAMIC terrorist leader Noordin Top was "infatuated" with al-Qaida and has modelled himself on its leaders as he plots more attacks in Asia, a report said yesterday.
Top is blamed in part for both the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, as well as the 2004 attack on Australia's Jakarta embassy.
An analysis by the International Crisis Group said he was now trying to extend his reach beyond Jemaah Islamiyah to recruit supporters from other extremist Islamic groups.
By doing so, he has put himself beyond the reach of JI's central command and some Islamic religious leaders. "He reportedly justifies his actions on the grounds that under emergency conditions . . . a small group or even a single individual can take on the enemy without instructions from its imam," the report says.
"In this way, he may see himself as leading the 'real' JI, as opposed to the do-nothings who object to the bombings."
Malaysian-born Top, nicknamed the "moneyman", is one of Asia's most wanted men. He has narrowly escaped a series of police raids, including a gunbattle in which his chief bombmaker and closest confidant, Azahari Husin, was killed. Two other top aides, including his chief of staff Jabir, were shot dead by police during a dawn raid on a hideout in central Java last weekend.
The ICG report on the networks of support which were helping Top evade his hunters and continue bombings says the 38-year-old had begun to compare himself with senior al-Qaida terrorists, naming his group after the feared terror network.
"The extent of his actual communication with al-Qaida is not clear, but he certainly seems to have been infatuated with it," the report says.
"As of mid-2004, he had taken on the nom-de-guerre of 'Ayman', almost certainly after the al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri".
But as police arrests destroyed his support networks, Top had begun to turn with mixed success to other Islamic militant groups in the southern Philippines and parts of conflict-torn Sulawesi and Ambon.
The Java raid and Jabir's death would be a severe blow for Top and police were undoubtedly closing in on the man who had managed to evade an intense four-year manhunt.
But the networks he has recruited will still be a threat. And Top's ambition to create an Islamic super-state has begun to grow beyond Indonesia to other parts of Asia.
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Indonesian raid misses top JI terrorist
Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesian authorities raided the hideout of several suspected terrorists in Central Java early Saturday, leaving two people dead, but failed to capture the country's most-wanted terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, police officials said.
Two suspected militants were also arrested in the raid, which involved police helicopters, the bomb squad and military in an hour-long shoot-out around 5:30 a.m. (2230 GMT Friday), police said.
Initially, police thought they had cornered the most-wanted Malaysian terrorist suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia, inside the rented house.
Local residents reported gunfire and blasts coming from a cordoned-off area near an ordinary market in the Binangun village of Wonosobo district. But police later confirmed Top had eluded capture.
"We carried out a raid at a house in Wonosobo but we couldn't find Noordin M. Top," National Police Chief General Sutanto was quoted by Elshinta private radio as saying, adding that the suspects killed were Muslim extremists using M-16 rifles.
Sutanto said police began monitoring the house after discovering it was being used by a terrorist suspect involved in bombings in 2000, and another suspect who was an alleged courier for Top, both of whom were arrested in the raid.
Sutanto identified the dead suspects as Abdul Hadi, alias Bambang, the bomb-maker in the group, and Jabir, a Muslim militant bomber involved in Jakarta's J.W Marriott Hotel in August 2003, which left at least 12 people dead and dozens others wounded.
National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said Top had fled before heavily armed police arrived at his safe house before dawn, but that they had killed or captured other key militants.
"Noordin Top was not found in that location," Alam said. "But the others were involved in serious bombing attacks in the country in recent years."
Anti-terror police have been on a nationwide manhunt for Top, who they accuse of being a senior operative of the al-Qaeda-linked regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), but he has always managed to narrowly elude capture.
Top's partner, Azahari bin Husin, was killed in November during a dramatic police raid on his hideout in East Java in which suicide bombs were detonated.
The two terror suspects have been accused of masterminding a string of bombings in Indonesia in the past several years that have killed about 250 people, including the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005.
Recent intelligence suggested that Top was still recruiting people to carry out more suicide attacks and remained in close contact with jailed extremists.
A number of Muslim militants linked to Top have been arrested in the past couple of months, but Indonesian authorities and Western governments said he and his followers were still a threat despite arrests and the killing of Azahari.
By ROB TAYLOR
06may06
ISLAMIC terrorist leader Noordin Top was "infatuated" with al-Qaida and has modelled himself on its leaders as he plots more attacks in Asia, a report said yesterday.
Top is blamed in part for both the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, as well as the 2004 attack on Australia's Jakarta embassy.
An analysis by the International Crisis Group said he was now trying to extend his reach beyond Jemaah Islamiyah to recruit supporters from other extremist Islamic groups.
By doing so, he has put himself beyond the reach of JI's central command and some Islamic religious leaders. "He reportedly justifies his actions on the grounds that under emergency conditions . . . a small group or even a single individual can take on the enemy without instructions from its imam," the report says.
"In this way, he may see himself as leading the 'real' JI, as opposed to the do-nothings who object to the bombings."
Malaysian-born Top, nicknamed the "moneyman", is one of Asia's most wanted men. He has narrowly escaped a series of police raids, including a gunbattle in which his chief bombmaker and closest confidant, Azahari Husin, was killed. Two other top aides, including his chief of staff Jabir, were shot dead by police during a dawn raid on a hideout in central Java last weekend.
The ICG report on the networks of support which were helping Top evade his hunters and continue bombings says the 38-year-old had begun to compare himself with senior al-Qaida terrorists, naming his group after the feared terror network.
"The extent of his actual communication with al-Qaida is not clear, but he certainly seems to have been infatuated with it," the report says.
"As of mid-2004, he had taken on the nom-de-guerre of 'Ayman', almost certainly after the al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri".
But as police arrests destroyed his support networks, Top had begun to turn with mixed success to other Islamic militant groups in the southern Philippines and parts of conflict-torn Sulawesi and Ambon.
The Java raid and Jabir's death would be a severe blow for Top and police were undoubtedly closing in on the man who had managed to evade an intense four-year manhunt.
But the networks he has recruited will still be a threat. And Top's ambition to create an Islamic super-state has begun to grow beyond Indonesia to other parts of Asia.
=========
Indonesian raid misses top JI terrorist
Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesian authorities raided the hideout of several suspected terrorists in Central Java early Saturday, leaving two people dead, but failed to capture the country's most-wanted terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, police officials said.
Two suspected militants were also arrested in the raid, which involved police helicopters, the bomb squad and military in an hour-long shoot-out around 5:30 a.m. (2230 GMT Friday), police said.
Initially, police thought they had cornered the most-wanted Malaysian terrorist suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia, inside the rented house.
Local residents reported gunfire and blasts coming from a cordoned-off area near an ordinary market in the Binangun village of Wonosobo district. But police later confirmed Top had eluded capture.
"We carried out a raid at a house in Wonosobo but we couldn't find Noordin M. Top," National Police Chief General Sutanto was quoted by Elshinta private radio as saying, adding that the suspects killed were Muslim extremists using M-16 rifles.
Sutanto said police began monitoring the house after discovering it was being used by a terrorist suspect involved in bombings in 2000, and another suspect who was an alleged courier for Top, both of whom were arrested in the raid.
Sutanto identified the dead suspects as Abdul Hadi, alias Bambang, the bomb-maker in the group, and Jabir, a Muslim militant bomber involved in Jakarta's J.W Marriott Hotel in August 2003, which left at least 12 people dead and dozens others wounded.
National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said Top had fled before heavily armed police arrived at his safe house before dawn, but that they had killed or captured other key militants.
"Noordin Top was not found in that location," Alam said. "But the others were involved in serious bombing attacks in the country in recent years."
Anti-terror police have been on a nationwide manhunt for Top, who they accuse of being a senior operative of the al-Qaeda-linked regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), but he has always managed to narrowly elude capture.
Top's partner, Azahari bin Husin, was killed in November during a dramatic police raid on his hideout in East Java in which suicide bombs were detonated.
The two terror suspects have been accused of masterminding a string of bombings in Indonesia in the past several years that have killed about 250 people, including the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005.
Recent intelligence suggested that Top was still recruiting people to carry out more suicide attacks and remained in close contact with jailed extremists.
A number of Muslim militants linked to Top have been arrested in the past couple of months, but Indonesian authorities and Western governments said he and his followers were still a threat despite arrests and the killing of Azahari.