Militant’s death not to ruin Asia network: Howard

By Michelle Nichols

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Southeast Asian militant network
Jemaah Islamiah will not be crippled by the death of one of its
most wanted members, but it will be a huge advance in the war
on terrorism, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on
Thursday.

Malaysian Islamic militant Azahari Husin is believed to
have blown himself up on Wednesday after a gunbattle with
Indonesian police in the town of Batu in East Java province.

He is considered to be the brains behind bomb attacks on
Western targets in Indonesia and the top bomb maker in Jemaah
Islamiah (JI), which is seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.

“It doesn’t mean that JI is crippled, but it does mean …
(he) may well have been taken out of the equation. If that is
confirmed then it is a huge advance, but we are going to be
embroiled in this struggle for years,” Howard said in a
interview to Australia’s Sky Television.

Indonesian police say the electronics expert designed and
supervised the making of the car bomb which caused the most
damage in the 2002 bomb attacks on the resort island of Bali
that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Azahari is also believed to be behind the 2004 strike on
the Australian embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 Indonesians
and last month’s Bali restaurant bombings that killed 20
people, including four Australians.

“If he is confirmed as being the person who has died in
this operation yesterday … it will make a big dent in the
operations of the radical terrorist groups in Indonesia,”
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty told
Australian radio.

Keelty said a breakthrough in the hunt for Azahari came
about 10 days ago when one of the suicide bombers involved in
last month’s Bali restaurant attacks was identified, then more
precise information was received on Tuesday. Jemaah Islamiah
wants to set up an Islamic state in parts of Southeast Asia.
Its network has been disrupted by numerous arrests since the
2002 Bali bombings, although security experts have said it was
still a threat.

“(Azahari) was also said to be the inspirational leader who
recruited people for the organization, and hopefully (his
death) would diminish its capacity,” Australian Attorney
General Philip Ruddock said.

“But one ought not to be, I think, blase about these
matters. One can’t assume that those that are left won’t still
have some residual capacity to continue the sort of activities
we’ve seen them engaged in.”