Reuters - 1 hour 25 minutes
ago
March 26 - An Indonesian-led crackdown on Jemaah Islamiah has
dealt the Southeast Asian Islamic militant network several major
blows over recent years, although some members believed responsible
for deadly attacks remain at large.
Here is an overview of the fate of some of the best-known
members of the group which aims to establish an Islamic state and
has attacked Western targets in Southeast Asia.
At large:
* NOORDIN MOHAMMAD TOP -- Accused of masterminding a series of
deadly bombings including the second Bali blasts in 2005 that
killed more than 20 people, Malaysian-born Top is said to be JI's
leading strategist and a key financier. Indonesian police say they
have often come close to capturing him.
* UMAR PATEK -- Wanted for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202
people, JI member Patek is thought to have fled to the Philippines'
restive southern islands in 2003 with fellow accused Dulmatin. Both
have been working with members of Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine group
responsible for the country's worst terror attack, a 2004 ferry
bombing that killed over 100 people. Captured:
* ABU DUJANA -- Indonesia's most-wanted man when he was captured
in central Java in June last year, Abu Dujana was wanted in
connection with bombings including the 2004 attack on the
Australian embassy in Jakarta. He is on trial for authorising the
shipping of explosives to the religiously divided Sulawesi region
of Poso and for harbouring fugitive militants, but is not charged
with a specific bombing attack. Police say Dujana headed a new JI
military wing, called Sariyah or military company.
* RIDUAN ISAMUDDIN, ALSO KNOWN AS HAMBALI -- One of a number of
hardcore militants believed to have joined the group in Malaysia,
Hambali was accused of planning the 2002 Bali bombings and captured
in 2003. The Afghanistan-war veteran dubbed "the Osama bin Laden of
Southeast Asia" was seen as the main link between JI and al Qaeda.
He is now being held in Guantanamo Bay.
* MOHAMAD BAEHAQI, ALIAS LATIF -- Philippine police arrested
Latif, the Indonesian national they say is a JI member linked to
bombings in 2006 which killed 20 people, in a Muslim rebel hideout
on February 17 2008.
Captured, convicted, and on death row for 2002 Bali
bombings:
* AMROZI -- The mechanic from Lamongan, East Java, was dubbed
the "smiling bomber" because of his constant grin during the Bali
bombing trial. He was the first of the three JI members on death
row to be arrested by Indonesian police in November 2002, and the
first to be sentenced to death, in August 2003.
* IMAM SAMUDRA -- The alleged chief planner of the Bali
bombings, described by police as a computer expert from Serang in
western Java, confessed he planned the blasts when arrested in late
November 2002. He was sentenced to death in September 2003.
* MUKLAS, ALSO KNOWN AS ALI GUFRON -- Amrozi's older brother,
the Islamic teacher Muklas was arrested in central Java in early
December 2002. Accused of being operational chief of JI's Southeast
Asian branch, he said he did not play a direct role in the Bali
attack and retracted a confession in June 2003, saying he was
tortured into confessing by interrogators. He remained defiant
throughout his trial.
Captured and released:
* ABU BAKAR BASHIR -- Accused of co-founding JI with the late
Abdullah Sungkar after they fled into exile in Malaysia in the
early 1980s; security officials and experts have said Bashir was
the group's spiritual leader, but he has consistently denied being
part of it. The bearded preacher of Yemeni descent led an Islamic
Youth movement before setting up the so-called "heart of JI", the
Al-Mukmin boarding school in Solo, Central Java, in the 1970s with
Sungkar. Jailed for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, he was
released in June 2006 and later cleared of wrongdoing.
Deceased:
* ABDULLAH SUNGKAR -- After he was alleged to have helped
co-found JI, cleric Sungkar went to Afghanistan to participate in
the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s, laying the foundations for JI's
links with al Qaeda. When Sungkar died in 1999, Bashir became the
group's leader, some experts say.
* AZAHARI HUSIN -- A British-trained former university professor
who became a master bombmaker for JI and allegedly played key roles
in some of the most deadly bomb attacks that struck Indonesia this
decade, the bespectacled Malaysian, nicknamed the Demolition Man,
was killed in a shootout with anti-terror police commandos in the
East Java district of Batu in 2005.
Uncertain:
* DULMATIN -- Believed to have fled to the Philippines in 2003
after being implicated in the 2002 Bali blasts, Dulmatin eluded
authorities for years before he was reported wounded in a military
raid on Jan. 31, 2008. In February the Philippine military said
they may have exhumed his body, although DNA tests are being
conducted.
Source: Reuters
(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, editing by Ed Davies, Singapore
Editorial Reference Unit)