Indonesia holds seven terror suspects

JAKARTA—Indonesia has arrested seven terror suspects who allegedly smuggled weapons into the country from the Philippines through Malaysia, the national police spokesman said Tuesday.

“They were rounded up in the capital Jakarta and Surabaya city for their alleged involvement in firearms smuggling from the Philippines,” Boy Rafli Amar said, adding that they had passed through Tawau in Malaysian Borneo.

“They are now being questioned by the counter-terrorism Detachment 88,” he said.

Seven firearms were seized along with about one hundred rounds of ammunition, he added.

An unnamed police source said that the arrested group had planned to mount an armed bank robbery to fund their terror activities.

Police last month arrested 16 terror suspects for a plot to poison police personnel with cyanide at station canteens. According to investigators they planned to inject the poison into mineral water bottles.

In the last few months dozens of suspects have been held who are allegedly part of a new militant cell behind a series of recent incidents, including book bombs sent to Muslim moderates and counter-terrorism officials.

The cell was linked to an April suicide bomb attack in a prayer room at a police compound in Cirebon in West Java.

Police also foiled a bid to set off a huge bomb near a church on the outskirts of Jakarta at Easter. No one was killed in those incidents.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.