World News | Indonesian police kill two suspected JI militants

JAKARTA, April 13 (AP) Indonesian police said Thursday that an Indonesian counterterrorism police unit had killed two men suspected of being linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked group that has been involved in the past. A series of bombings have been blamed for it.

The two men, whose initials are BA and ZK, were identified as Density 88 after a shootout with police during a raid in Lampung province on the southern tip of Sumatra island on Wednesday, said team spokesman Aswin Siregar.

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One officer was seriously injured in the shootout and was hospitalized, he said.

Siregar told a news conference that the attack was part of a wider crackdown on Jemaah Islamiyah across the country, following reports that Jemaah Islamiyah was recruiting and training new members.

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The shadowy network has been blamed for attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia, including a 2002 bombing in the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The United States has listed it as a terrorist organization.

The two men are also accused of harboring former JI military commander Zulkarnaen, who escaped capture for 18 years and was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year for withholding information from authorities about the 2002 Bali bombings, Siregar said.

He said the men also harbored another prominent JI member, bombmaker Upik Ravanga, who escaped capture for 16 years and was sentenced to life in prison last year for making a bomb that had Used in the 2005 Pozo market attack that killed 22 people, mostly Christians.

Police also arrested four other JI members and seized an M-16 rifle, handguns and machetes in a separate raid in Lampung on Tuesday, Siregar said.

“We are still looking for other suspected members,” he said.

An Indonesian court outlawed the militant network in 2008, weakened by an ongoing crackdown by security forces backed by the United States and Australia.

Over the past decade, smaller and less lethal attacks against the government, mainly the police and security forces, have largely replaced aggressive attacks against foreigners in Indonesia, which were attacked by the Islamic State group overseas. Tactical inspiration.

Indonesian police have been criticized for shooting suspects instead of arresting them. Authorities say they were forced to defend themselves. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)