ABDULLAH SONATA CAPTURED IN INDONESIA
Indonesian police said, Wednesday 06/23/2010, they had captured Abdullah Sonata, a key terror facilitator, and killed an accomplice in two raids in Boyolali, Central Java. Abdullah Sonata was thought to have recently returned from the Philippines and started recruiting and training fighters.
Abdullah Sonata was captured alive in Boyolali district while two suspects were arrested and another killed in an operation in neighboring Klaten district, a police source said.
Abdullah Sonata is a veteran of religious conflicts in the Poso and Ambon areas and had been released after serving several years in prison for his role in the 2004 bombing of the AUSTRALIAN Embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people.
He was a loyal follower of late terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top, who was killed by Indonesian police in 09/2009 after one of Southeast Asia’s biggest manhunts (see -Solo 09.16.09).
Abdullah Sonata, one of Indonesia’s most wanted men, was also allegedly a central figure in the establishment of a terror training camp which was disrupted in Aceh province earlier this year (see -Banda Aceh 02.23.10).
One of the other men detained in Klaten was identified as Sogir, who had also spent time in jail over the embassy attack, police said. According to the Indonesian police Abdullah Sonata and Sogir not only planned to bomb the Police Anniversary Day celebration, or Hari Bhayangkara, but also to bomb the Danish Embassy in Jakarta, probably because of the Muhammad Cartoons. Abdullah Sonata and Sogir also confessed that they ordered Yuli Karseno, the terror suspect who was shot dead in Klaten on Wednesday, to shoot two policemen in Purworejo and one policeman in Kebuman, Central Java.
“Those arrested alive in Klaten are Agus Mahmudi and Sogir, and the man killed was Yuli Kartono,” a source in the counter-terror police force told AFP, without elaborating.
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