Indonesian police shot dead two suspected militants and arrested eight others in Aceh province yesterday, in continuing anti-terror operations that began here three weeks ago.
The Indonesian military also said it had increased its patrolling of borders in an attempt to prevent terrorists from moving in and out of the country, China's Xinhua news agency reported yesterday (March 12).
Commanders of sea, land and air operations in areas that border neighbouring countries had been ordered to be on heightened alert, Indonesian military (TNI) spokesman Sagom Tamboen was quoted as saying.
Indonesian police also tightened their checks at seaports, bus terminals and airports, especially in Sumatra and Java because of increased terrorist activities lately, he said.
Police said yesterday's incident here in Aceh began after an officer at a roadside security check stopped a black minivan. He noticed a bag containing assault rifles lying on the vehicle's floor.
The policeman shouted to his colleagues, prompting two passengers to jump from the front of the van. One of them started shooting as they attempted to flee.
Police fired back, hitting one in the abdomen and the other in the head. None of the police officers was wounded.
"Had the shot been fired properly, I could've lost one of my men," said Aceh province's police chief, Inspector-General Aditya Warman, at a press briefing in Banda Aceh.
The shoot-out took place about 23km west of the provincial capital. Police confiscated five assault rifles, including three M-16s, from the rented minivan that had been headed for Meulaboh, a port town in southern Aceh.
A handgun and 25 bullet magazines were also seized. The handgun probably belonged to an anti-terrorism policeman who was shot dead in an ambush by the militants last week, said Inspector-General Aditya.
Police launched the series of raids in Aceh after uncovering a paramilitary camp in a mountainous area not far from the capital on February 22.
Yesterday's shooting brought the number of suspected militants killed in Aceh and Java to seven since that raid. More than 30 others have been arrested.
Three policemen have also been killed in the operations.
Some experts believe that South-east Asia's Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network has made Aceh its new base.
National police chief detective Ito Sumardi on Thursday said that the militants came from southern Philippines and some underwent military training in Afghanistan.
"They are former volunteers in the Philippines," he was quoted as saying in the Kompas newspaper yesterday.
"They were trained at the military academy in Afghanistan. Some are in the Philippines."
Aceh governor Irwandi Yusuf also spoke to reporters after yesterday's incident.
"They wrongly chose Aceh as the base for their activity," he said. "They thought Aceh was an ideal place for them."
Police interrogation of those arrested in the February 22 raid in Aceh led the authorities to long-time fugitive Dulmatin, the JI leader responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people.
The 40-year-old bomb maker, believed to have been providing support for the paramilitary training camp in Aceh, was shot dead on Tuesday outside Jakarta.
Suspicion is also mounting that another fugitive militant, Umar Patek, may be in Aceh, after word spread that Indonesian counter-terrorism forces were hot on his trail.
Umar was a JI leader in Indonesia until he fled to southern Philippines in 2003.
