Indonesian police detain six people on terror links

3.15pm UPDATE


JAKARTA - Indonesian police have detained six people linked to terrorism since last week's bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed nine and wounded 182, they said on Friday.

National Police spokesman Paiman said six people had been picked up in East Java. They included a married couple and a man in the provincial capital of Surabaya whose detention was announced on Thursday.

Acting on suspicions that Azahari Husin, a key bombmaker wanted in the embassy attack, might be in hiding along with militants who would be sworn in as suicide bombers, police said they had raided the couple's house on Wednesday night.

However, Paiman said none of those detained had been directly tied to the September 9 car bombing of the Australian embassy.

"I checked with the East Java police officials and there are six (detained). They are related to a terror case," Paiman said.

"But they are not linked to the bombing at the embassy," he added, without elaborating.

Some media, quoting sources in the police, said one man had been arrested in Jakarta in relation to the embassy blast but Paiman dismissed those reports.

"As for the bombing, so far we have not made any arrest."

Suyitno Landung, head of the police criminal investigation department, also dismissed the news reports, telling Reuters: "No one is being arrested."

Police have said they suspect the embassy attack was masterminded by Azahari Husin, a senior Malaysian member of Jemaah Islamiah, a militant group blamed for the attack and seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.

Indonesia has offered cash rewards of more than $100,000 ($153,327.20) for information leading to his arrest or that of another Malaysian figure in Jemaah Islamiah wanted over the bombing, Noordin Mohammed Top.

Indonesia blames Jemaah Islamiah for other attacks, including the 2002 bombing of nightclubs on Bali island that killed 202 people and one on a luxury hotel in Jakarta last year that killed 12.

Jemaah Islamiah wants to set up an austere Islamic state across parts of Southeast Asia.

- REUTERS