Jakarta // Indonesian police have foiled a major terror plot with the arrest of several men allegedly linked to a planned suicide bombing in Jakarta during New Year celebrations.
During raids in several cities across Java island on Friday and Saturday, police arrested five members of an alleged extremist network and seized chemicals, laboratory equipment and a flag inspired by the ISIL group, according to police documents.
Among those arrested was Asep Urip, 31, a teacher at an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, and his pupil Zaenal, 35, whom police allege was being “groomed” to carry out an imminent attack.
“From early information, it’s known that Zaenal was a candidate for a suicide bombing in Jakarta to be conducted on New Year’s 2016,” stated police documents into the arrests seen by AFP on Sunday.
A subsequent raid on the teacher’s house uncovered a black flag inscribed with text “similar to an ISIL flag”, police said.
Elite anti-terror police detained the teacher and the student after swooping on two other men with connections both to the religious school and to expert bombmakers and radicals in other parts of Java.
One of those men, Iwan, had travelled to West Java this month with the intention of building a bomb, police allege.
A fifth man was arrested near the city of Semarang on Saturday, leading to a raid on his home where a wide array of suspect materials was seized including laboratory equipment, chemical textbooks, fertiliser, buckshot and spikes.
Police said the nationwide operation was targeting an organised terror cell.
“These arrests were carried out because of indications these men were involved in a terrorist network,” police documents state.
The raids came just a month after Indonesia increased security at its airports after a threat was directed at one serving the capital Jakarta.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major bomb attacks by extremists between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people. But a crackdown has weakened the most dangerous extremist networks.
However the emergence of ISIL has sparked alarm that Indonesians returning from battlefields in the Middle East could revive the networks.
Indonesian police in August arrested three people with links to the ISIL group who were planning to launch bomb attacks during Independence Day celebrations.
* Agence France-Presse
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
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Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
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Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
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COMPANY PROFILE
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Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
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He became the first Emirati to climb Mount Everest in 2011, from the south section in Nepal
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He carries dried camel meat, dried dates and a wheat mixture for the final summit push
His new goal is to climb 14 peaks that are more than 8,000 metres above sea level
Company Profile
Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
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A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Director: James Wan
Starring: Jason Mamoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Rating: 2/5