TerrorismIndonesian security forces kill country's most wanted Islamist militant
Abu Wardah Santoso, Indonesia’s most wanted Islamist militant, was killed in a shootout with security forces. Santoso, who was the leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group which, in 2014, claimed allegiance to ISIS, had eluded capture for more than five years.
Abu Wardah Santoso, Indonesia’s most wanted Islamist militant, was killed in a shootout with security forces, an Indonesian government senior minister said. He added the killing was but one indication of the growing effectiveness of the government’s counterterrorism campaign against extremists operating in the jungles of Sulawesi island.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the minister for security, political and legal affairs, said that Santoso was one of two militants killed in the shootout on Monday. The other was an extremist known as Mochtar, not Santoso’s deputy Basri, as police had initially believed.
News.com.au reports that Santoso, who was the leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group which, in 2014, claimed allegiance to ISIS, had eluded capture for more than five years.
The government deployed about 2,500 security personnel, including elite army troops, to Poso, a mountainous district of Central Sulawesi province considered an extremist hotbed, in an effort to capture Santoso and his followers.
“The strength of this extremist group will definitely weaken after the death of Santoso,” Pandjaitan said. “We will increase our forces to pressure the rest of the members.”
Security experts questioned the government’s focus on Santoso and the remote Central Sulawesi province, while the activity by ISIS sympathizers was increasing in Java and other parts of Indonesia. In January, four ISIS followers carried out a suicide bombing and shooting in the capital, Jakarta, killing four other people.
Santoso ran a radical training camp in Poso, where a Muslim-Christian conflict killed at least 1,000 people from 1998 to 2002. He has been linked to a number of deadly attacks against police officers and Christians.
News.com.au notes that Indonesian anti-terror police raided a jihadist training camp in a remote part of Aceh in 2010, killing dozens of suspected militants and arresting more than 100 others. Santoso vowed revenge attacks and succeeded in killing at least six police officers.
Security was raised at airports, the presidential palace, foreign embassies, and major shopping centers in Jakartalate last year after Santoso posted a video on social media, threatening attacks against police and other targets.
