Yahoo – AFP, Olivia Rondonuwu, Dessy Sagita, July 19, 2016
Indonesia's
most wanted Muslim extremist has been killed in a firefight with troops,
authorities said Tuesday, ending a years-long hunt for the Islamic State (IS)
group supporter.
Santoso,
the leader of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen, was shot dead on Monday on
mountainous Sulawesi island, where he had been hiding out in the jungle with a
small band of followers.
His death
is a major victory for authorities in the world's most populous Muslim-majority
country who had pursued the extremist for five years, sending thousands of
security forces to hunt for him.
His group
carried out a string of deadly attacks on domestic security forces and was
known for training militants from around the archipelago. In 2014 he pledged
allegiance to IS and earlier this year was placed by the United States on a
list of global terrorists.
"The
group is obviously weakened now that we have got the leader," national
police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters, as he confirmed the militant's
death.
He said the
country's extremists had wanted to transform Sulawesi's Poso district, where Santoso
and his followers were based, into a "safe haven" and a regional
power base.
"With
this group broken, their hope for a base there is gone," he added.
After
Indonesia suffered a string of Islamic extremist attacks in the early 2000s,
including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200, authorities
launched a crackdown that weakened the most dangerous networks.
But
Santoso's group remained a thorn in the side of the government, with the
long-haired, gun-toting militant regularly appearing in videos urging
extremists to launch attacks on the security forces.
After
Indonesia suffered a string of Islamic extremist attacks in the early 2000s,
authorities launched a crackdown that was credited with weakening the most
dangerous networks (AFP Photo)
|
Significant blow
The picture
has changed recently, with other cells now considered a greater threat --
Santoso was not believed to have played role in an IS-claimed attack in Jakarta
in January that left four attackers and four civilians dead.
But his
death will still be seen as a significant blow to Islamic militancy in
Indonesia.
The
extremist, known by several aliases including Abu Wardah, was killed alongside
one other militant in Tambarana village in Poso.
Police said
the pair were killed beside a river and a rifle was recovered. Two women, one
of whom was suspected to be Santoso’s wife, and another man, escaped from the
gunfight.
Following a
sustained campaign by security forces, authorities believe just 19 members of
Santoso's group now remain on Sulawesi waging a guerrilla campaign against the
government.
Santoso
also attracted militants from abroad, with several members of China's mostly
Muslim Uighur ethnic minority travelling to Indonesia to join his group.
Several
were killed fighting with the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen, and in July last
year four Uighurs were jailed after being caught on Sulawesi attempting to join
the group.
Santoso
became involved in Islamic extremism during bloody fighting between Muslims and
Christians around Poso from the late 1990s to the early 2000s which left
hundreds dead.
He went on
to form the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen and quickly jumped to the top of the
most wanted list after his men began killing police officers.
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