The identification of one of the three suicide bombers in October’s Bali restaurant blasts led authorities to the hideout of one of Asia’s most wanted terrorist suspects, the Australian police commissioner said on Thursday.
Mick Keelty said Indonesian police identified the suicide bomber from East Java province about 10 days ago, and that led them to Azahari bin Husin, alleged to have been the chief bomb maker for al-Qaeda-linked regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Keelty said evidence gathered about how the suicide bomber was recruited ”led to other leads that led to a suspicion where Azahari was”.
Keelty said authorities have been using ”sophisticated technology” to track terrorists in Indonesia, including the capture of suspects in previous bomb attacks on Bali in 2002, and ”it appears that it has been quite successful here”.
Keelty refused to go into details about the technology. At least one of the 2002 Bali bombers, Imam Samudra, was detained after Australian authorities used his cellphone signal to track him down.
The 2002 attacks killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
On Thursday, Indonesian police announced that Azahari, a Malaysian who allegedly masterminded the 2002 bombings and three other deadly attacks in Indonesia, was killed when he set off a massive blast to avoid capture on Wednesday. One other militant was also killed.
Keelty was in Bangkok to sign an agreement on increased cooperation between Australian and Thai police. — Sapa-AP