Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian police said Friday they were interrogating 10 suspects and examining some 20 improvised bombs after cracking a major cell of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror group.
They were also sifting through volumes of material gathered from an alleged safe house in the South Sumatra provincial capital of Palembang earlier this week, including the bombs and 18 computer hard drives.
"We are still investigating the terror suspects and examining all the explosives we found," national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told AFP.
"Our team is still studying how powerful these bombs would have been. There are quite a lot of devices and we're still working on that."
He refused to confirm media reports that some of the bombs found in the safe house, including 10 that were primed to explode, were capable of unleashing the sort of blasts which killed 202 people in Bali six years ago.
Police have given very little information about the men who were rounded up in and around Palembang between Saturday and Wednesday, saying only that they formed a dangerous cell linked to some of the region's most wanted extremists.
The cell had staked out a backpacker cafe in the tourist town of Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, police said, and was reportedly eyeing Western targets in Jakarta.
Police said the leader, believed to be a Singaporean known as Abu Hazam, was connected to Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, who allegedly masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta and the Australian embassy attack in 2004.
Noordin is the alleged chief of the most extreme JI faction and calls himself leader of Al-Qaeda for the Malay Archipelago, a loose network believed to include extremists in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Abu Hazam, also known as Omar and Taslim, is also an associate of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of JI's Singapore branch who escaped from prison there in February and is still at large, reportedly in Indonesia.
Police said Hazam had received military training in Afghanistan but have not confirmed local media reports that he had met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
They said Hazam was teaching bomb-making to other cell members in Palembang when he was arrested on Saturday.
Police were investigating reports that Kastari had fled to Indonesia after his escape from custody in Singapore on February 27.
"We still don't know whether Kastari has already entered Indonesia, we're still investigating that," Nataprawira said.
Being circumspect
National chief police Sutanto told reporters however that police were being circumspect about giving information on Kastari because they were afraid he would escape.
"We don't need to say anything. It's still under investigation. We're afraid that if we mention it he'll escape," he said.
The Singaporean government accuses Kastari of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001.
Police said the Singaporean detainee captured on Saturday, belived to be Abu Hazam, had been the subject of a "red note" from the Singapore government informing Jakarta that he was engaged in terrorist activity in Indonesia.
Sutanto said he would be prosecuted in Indonesia before any Jakarta considered any extradition request from Singapore. (*)
They were also sifting through volumes of material gathered from an alleged safe house in the South Sumatra provincial capital of Palembang earlier this week, including the bombs and 18 computer hard drives.
"We are still investigating the terror suspects and examining all the explosives we found," national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira told AFP.
"Our team is still studying how powerful these bombs would have been. There are quite a lot of devices and we're still working on that."
He refused to confirm media reports that some of the bombs found in the safe house, including 10 that were primed to explode, were capable of unleashing the sort of blasts which killed 202 people in Bali six years ago.
Police have given very little information about the men who were rounded up in and around Palembang between Saturday and Wednesday, saying only that they formed a dangerous cell linked to some of the region's most wanted extremists.
The cell had staked out a backpacker cafe in the tourist town of Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, police said, and was reportedly eyeing Western targets in Jakarta.
Police said the leader, believed to be a Singaporean known as Abu Hazam, was connected to Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, who allegedly masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2003 Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta and the Australian embassy attack in 2004.
Noordin is the alleged chief of the most extreme JI faction and calls himself leader of Al-Qaeda for the Malay Archipelago, a loose network believed to include extremists in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
Abu Hazam, also known as Omar and Taslim, is also an associate of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the alleged leader of JI's Singapore branch who escaped from prison there in February and is still at large, reportedly in Indonesia.
Police said Hazam had received military training in Afghanistan but have not confirmed local media reports that he had met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
They said Hazam was teaching bomb-making to other cell members in Palembang when he was arrested on Saturday.
Police were investigating reports that Kastari had fled to Indonesia after his escape from custody in Singapore on February 27.
"We still don't know whether Kastari has already entered Indonesia, we're still investigating that," Nataprawira said.
Being circumspect
National chief police Sutanto told reporters however that police were being circumspect about giving information on Kastari because they were afraid he would escape.
"We don't need to say anything. It's still under investigation. We're afraid that if we mention it he'll escape," he said.
The Singaporean government accuses Kastari of plotting to hijack a plane in order to crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001.
Police said the Singaporean detainee captured on Saturday, belived to be Abu Hazam, had been the subject of a "red note" from the Singapore government informing Jakarta that he was engaged in terrorist activity in Indonesia.
Sutanto said he would be prosecuted in Indonesia before any Jakarta considered any extradition request from Singapore. (*)
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