JAKARTA – Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism squad has arrested a convicted militant and suspected leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that has been blamed for a string of past bombings in the country.
According to police spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan, Abu Rusdan was apprehended along with three other suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah on Friday in Bekasi.
“He is currently known to be active among the unlawful Jemaah Islamiyah network’s leadership,” Ramadhan added.
Indonesian authorities consider Rusdan a key figure in the Jemaah Islamiyah, which the United States has designated a terrorist group.
The shadowy Southeast Asian network is widely blamed for attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia – including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.(AP)
