Jakarta takes out local ISIS leader

Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, Santoso, believed to be killed in joint police and military operation in central Sulawesi.

Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, Santoso, is believed to have been killed in a joint police and military operation in central Sulawesi, the country’s top policeman said yesterday, describing his death as a “demoralising” blow to the archipelago’s nascent Islamic State network.

Tito Karnarvian said he was “90 per cent” certain that Santoso, the commander of the East Indonesia Mujaheddin (MIT), was killed in a shootout on Monday in a remote mountain village of Poso where the group has waged a guerilla insurgency since 2012.

“From the facial description and other features, which have been confirmed by those who know him, we can positively say that he is Santoso,” General Tito said.

“(Santoso’s death) will demoralise ISIS’s network in Indonesia (as) Santoso is the symbol of ISIS in Indonesia and ASEAN.”

Though police had earlier claimed Santoso’s deputy Basri was also killed in the shootout, General Tito later said a second body was more likely to be that of an MIT militant known as Muchtar.

Santoso’s death, still to be confirmed through DNA testing, comes four months into the latest police and military ground operation Tinombala, launched following a series of deadly attacks by MIT militants against civilians in the area accused of spying for police.

Indonesian military spokesman Tatang Sulamain said troops had been conducting routine patrols when they were tipped off to Santoso’s location, some 11km away over terrain so remote and difficult it took them three days to reach it.

Soldiers from the Alpha 29 and Raider 515 units arrived at the village of Tambrana early on Monday evening and engaged in a 30-minute shootout, Brigadier General Sulamain said.

Santoso’s body and that of another combatant were found at the site. The MIT commander, also known as Abu Wardah, was believed to have been identified by family members and captured fellow combatants by a mole between his eyes.

Santoso fought in the bloody Muslim-Christian conflict in Poso between 1998 and 2001 but jumped to the top of Indonesia’s most wanted list following his release from jail on robbery charges in 2012 when he was found to have been conducting military training camps for Indonesian extremists in Poso.

He gained even greater notoriety in 2014 after he and his group declared allegiance to ISIS, though he never commanded more than 50 militants — a number believed to have been whittled down to just 19 after months of battling police and military forces.

Santoso referred to himself as the “commander of Islamic State’s army in Indonesia”, after ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared his intention to establish a worldwide caliphate.

An acolyte of jailed radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, Santoso had also declared war on the country’s counter-terrorist police unit Densus 88, responsible for disbanding with ruthless efficiency Bashir’s Jemaah Islamiah, the group behind the 2002 Bali bombings.

In January 2016, police are said to have found evidence that MIT had been receiving funding in lots of $200 from ISIS.

Indonesian terror analyst Adhe Bhakti said though MIT was far smaller with less capacity than neighbouring militant outfits such as The Philippines’ Abu Sayyaf. Santos’s death, if proven, would still be a coup for Indonesian authorities.

But it would not end unrest in Poso where the government had failed to address either the issues of disaffection at the root of the conflict or the sufferings of those caught between combatants and military forces.

Nor would it end militancy in Indonesia, though it was possible the country could see reprisal attacks in months to come.

“We must realise that radicalism in Poso is different to other areas because it’s not just about ideology and religion,” he said.

“This is not a time for celebrations. The government should make a point to deliver a comprehensive solution for the people of Poso.”