Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect, Noordin Top, may have evaded a massive manhunt and fled Indonesia, police documents obtained by reporters said.
A militant who was arrested and extradited to Indonesia told police that an Algerian who helped him escape from the country also said that Top had managed to flee, the police interrogation documents said.
A senior anti-terror officer said yesterday that police were still “crosschecking” the information with other sources. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his job.
Top is accused of directing the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and three other attacks on Western targets in Indonesia that have together killed more than 240 people, most of them foreign tourists.
If confirmed, Top’s escape would be a blow to Indonesia, which has been praised for its successes in the fight against terrorism.
It would also raise worrying questions about Top’s current location and future plans.
Top, a Malaysian national, has been on the run since 2002. Police have arrested several of his aides or couriers and often claimed to be close to catching him, but over the last 18 months the trail has apparently gone cold.
The claim that he has fled is contained in police investigation reports into two senior Indonesian members of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant network who fled the country on a mission to link up with terrorist groups in the Middle East. They were arrested en route in Malaysia and extradited to Indonesia in late March.
Abu Husna and Agus Purwantoro told investigators an Algerian contact in Jakarta helped them obtain airplane tickets and fake passports and gave them contacts in Syria, the investigation reports said.
While discussing Abu Husna’s planned journey, the Algerian is quoted as saying: “Do you know that Noordin Top has escaped?”
Husna says he did not and asks Jafar how he knew this. Jafar replies that it is a secret.
Sidney Jones, a researcher for the International Crisis Group and a leading international authority on militants in Southeast Asia, said it was “plausible” that Top had managed to escape.
“If it is true, it’s a mixed blessing for Indonesia,” she said. “It would mean he was no longer around to recruit young Indonesians for possible attacks, but it would also mean someone with intimate knowledge of Southeast Asia was plugged back into the international jihadi network that could bring fresh attention to the region.”
Noordin Top is believed to head a breakaway faction of Jemaah Islamiyah committed to al-Qaeda style attacks on Western, civilian targets. In a video seized from a safehouse in 2005, he is shown pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda and vowing more attacks to avenge Muslim deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant