END OF TERROR GROUP LEADER'S "ADVENTURE" IN POSO'S FORESTED MOUNTAIN by Fardah

Jakarta, July 22, 2016 (Antara) - Santoso, one of the most wanted terror leaders in Indonesia, was finally eliminated in a gunfire by legal enforcers on July 18, after he remained a fugitive-in-hiding for almost a decade in the remote forested mountainous area in Poso District, Central Sulawesi Province.   
    Personnel of the Tinombala military operation's task force were involved in a shootout with Santoso-led Eastern Indonesian Mujahidin members, and managed to kill two men, while three others, including two women, escaped, in Mt Tambarana area, Poso.

         Reports about how long the encounter ran varied from it at half an hour to one and a half hour.

         After a long evacuation and identification process, Chief of Tinombala Operation task unit, Senior Commissioner Leo Bona Lubis, confirmed the next day that the two men who were shot dead in Poso were indeed Santoso and one of his associates, Mukhtar.

         "Based on a simple identification of the bodies, I, as the operation's chief, can confirm that the shootout that occurred yesterday (July 18) between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. ended in the killing of terrorist leader Santoso and Mukhtar, both of whom were on the fugitives' list," he said in Palu.

         "The three people who escaped are suspected to be Basri, his wife and Santoso's wife," he added.

         Only 19 members of the Santoso-led armed Eastern Indonesian Mujahidin group now remain outside the reach of law.

         They include Jumiatun Muslim alias Atun alias Bunga alias Umi Delima, the wife of Santoso, Tini Susanti Kaduku alias Umi Fadel (Ali Kalora's wife) and Nurmi Usman alias Oma (Basri's wife).

INDONESIAN SECURITY FORCES INTENSIFY MANHUNT FOR SANTOSO-LED GROUP by Fardah

 Jakarta, March 17, 2016 (Antara) - Shortly after Joko Widodo became Indonesia's seventh president in October 2014, Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo echoed the government's commitment to crush a terror group of Eastern Indonesian Mujahidin led by Santoso hiding in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

          "President Widodo's instruction is to sweep clean, for which all the TNI forces have been deployed. How come (we have done) nothing against them for the last decade? Starting next month, we are going to the field and will crush (them)," Minister Kumolo had stated in Papua in late December 2014.

          From early 2015 until January 9, 2016, joint police and military forces had launched security operations dubbed Seagull Maleo I to IV involving thousands of personnel, as well as warships and jet fighters in Poso.   
  During the Seagull Maleo IV operation, the forces managed to arrest 17 alleged terrorists and killed seven others, but Santoso was not among them. 
   Following the conclusion of the Seagull Maleo operations, the authorities have launched another security operation termed Tinombala to continue their hunt for Santoso and his men in the jungles of Poso, Central Sulawesi Province, since January 10, 2016, for two months.

POSO TRANSFORMED INTO BATTLEFIELD AGAINST TERRORISTS by Fardah

 Jakarta, April 2, 2015 (Antara) - Parts of Poso are being transformed into a battlefield as some 3.2 thousand Indonesian military officers of the Swift Reaction Strike Unit (PPRC) are participating in a massive military exercise against terrorists, being held for two weeks, since March 31, 2015.

         TNI Commander General Moeldoko has said that the large-scale exercise is being held as a precaution in case of the emergence of radical groups in Indonesia.      
   "I suspect that the members of radical groups feel at ease in Poso. I am worried that those going to Iraq and Syria, following their return to Indonesia, will make Poso as their base," the general stated when officially launched the military drill in Poso, South Sulawesi, on March 31, 2015.

          The exercise is deliberately organized as part of precautionary measures being taken by the government against terrorism, following recent reports of a number of citizens joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

INDONESIAN GOVT BOOSTS DEPLOYMENT IN POSO TO HUNT TERROR SUSPECTS By Fardah

     Jakarta, Jan 17,2015 (Antara) - Following the central government's directive to crush "Islamic State members" in Indonesia, hundreds of military and police personnel are currently combing the mountainous area of Poso in Central Sulawesi, to catch armed civilians hiding there.

          Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo had stated earlier that the government with the help of Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) intends to nab the Islamic State (IS) members,  who have entered Poso.

         The IS was formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.

         "President Jokowi's instruction is to sweep clean, for which all the TNI forces have been deployed. How come (we have done) nothing against them for the last decade? Starting next month, we are going to the field and crushing (them)," Minister Kumolo had said in Papua in late December 2014.

          He added that his Ministry had traced 100 foreign fighters from the IS, who have entered Poso.