The police of Indonesia (Illustrative photo - Source: Xinhua/VNA)Hanoi(VNA) - Indonesia’s counterterrorism squad has arrested four suspected Islamicmilitants who were trying to establish a jihadist training camp in easternIndonesia and likely had links with Abu Sayyaf militants in the southernPhilippines.
NationalPolice spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said the suspects were arrested in severallocations on the island of Java on March 23 and were connected to fourmilitants ambushed by police on the same day near Jakarta. One of the militantswas shot dead in the raid.
Amarsaid all eight were members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of Indonesianextremist groups that formed in 2015 and pledges allegiance to the self-proclaimedIslamic State (IS).
Oneof the suspects told police his role was to purchase rifles from militants inthe Philippines and he had traveled there several times.
Thegroup was planning to establish a new jihadist training camp afterIS-affiliated militants based in Poso on Sulawesi island were decimated by amonths-long police and military campaign that also killed their leader, AbuWardah Santoso.
Amar said earlier investigations foundthat five guns had been sent from the Philippines to Indonesian militants. Twoof them were used in a Jakarta suicide bombing and gun attack in January lastyear that killed eight people, including four attackers, and injured almost 30others.-VNA
VNA
