Indonesian police kill, arrest terrorists in latest crackdown

Indonesian police's anti-terror squad of Detachment 88 killed a man and arrested two others in their latest crackdown with car pursuit and shootout taking place on Thursday in Bone regency, South Sulawesi province. A police spokesperson said here Friday that those killed and arrested a day earlier were the perpetrators of gunfight with the police in Maluku province's capital of Ambon in 2005 and bomb making case in Enrekang, South Sulawesi province. Head of public relations of national police headquarters Ronny Franky Sompie said that further search in the residence of those terrorist suspects was underway. Ronny said that after the shootout with the terrorist suspects, police confiscated a pistol and a modified rifle and nine live bullets. He added that police also seized an MPV car used by the terrorists to escape from the police's crackdown, two kilograms of fertilizer and a machete. One of the terrorist suspects, Suardi, was shot dead as he tried to retaliate against the police. The two others, Jody alias Umar and Ahmad Iswan were brought to police station in South Sulawesi province's capital of Makassar for further questioning. They were suspected members of a terror group operating in Makassar, Ambon and Poso. Poso is located in Central Sulawesi province and has been a hotbed of sectarian conflict between Muslims and Christians. Even though the conflict had officially been settled in 2002, violence conducted by Muslim militant groups still occasionally occurred around the Central Sulawesi province. The militants attacked police stations, kidnapped and killed police who were on duty in Central Sulawesi province last year. Police also suspected that operatives of terror group from Poso were the perpetrators of the rampant shooting against the police in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in the last few months. A number of police on duty were shot dead in the capital city by motorists who were believed to be terror group members. Indonesia with dominant Muslim population has been facing challenge of extremism in the last decade. Indonesian police's anti-terror squad had successfully arrested terror group members who committed attacks in several parts of the country. Some of those arrested terrorists were sentenced to death.