One of Asia's most wanted terrorists was poised to launch a fresh series of blasts when he was killed by police this week, Indonesia said yesterday, as details emerged of a video made by three suicide bombers who attacked restaurants in Bali last month.
Officers found documents in the safe house of explosives expert Azahari bin Husin -- a Malaysian accused of coordinating a key role in four deadly strikes in Indonesia since 2002 -- detailing plans for more attacks, police spokesman Major General Aryanto Budihardjo said.
"The police found more bombs in his house," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a gathering of international parliamentarians in Jakarta. "Apparently we shot Azahari at a time when he was preparing for his next attacks."
Police shot and killed Azahari during a raid on his hide-out in Malang, east Java, on Wednesday. Another militant sheltering in the house with him blew himself up as police moved in.
Kompas daily quoted an unnamed police officer as saying that Azahari planned coordinated strikes later this month on schools and churches in cities across the country. Budihardjo declined to comment on the report.
Using intelligence gleaned from Azahari's house, police are stepping up their hunt for fellow Malaysian militant Noordin Mohamad Top, who they say narrowly escaped capture last week in a raid on his hide-out in the central Javanese town of Semarang.
Authorities say Noordin and Azahari are key leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is believed to be responsible for the 2002 attacks in Bali that killed 202 people, as well triple suicide strikes there last month that killed 20 people.
Police found a video recording in Noordin's safe-house in which the three attackers told their families they were prepared to die.
"We can clearly hear and see their confessions to their families that they [were] ready to perform an act they considered to be holy," said information minister Sofyan Djalil, who watched the video at a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
Djalil said the video was made for the "internal use" of the group and police did not believe Noordin intended to distribute it to the media as militant groups in the Middle East often do.
It is believed to be the first time that suicide attackers in Indonesia have made a video recording before launching an attack.
Jemaah Islamiyah, which allegedly wants to establish an Islamic state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines, has been weakened in recent years by a regional crackdown that has resulted in dozens of arrests.
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