Indonesia Arrests 11 in Plot to Bomb US Embassy, Other Targets

Posted October 27th, 2012 at 5:05 pm (UTC-5)
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Indonesian police say 11 people have been arrested in a suspected plot to attack the U.S. embassy in Jakarta and other domestic and foreign targets.

National police spokesman Suhardi Alius said Saturday the arrests by a special anti-terror unit took place in four provinces.

Alius said the suspects — members of the newly-formed Harakah Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society — were preparing to launch a series of strikes. He said targets also included a plaza near the Australian embassy in Jakarta, a local office of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan and the U.S. consulate in Surabaya. A police facility in Central Java was also targeted.

Authorities say evidence from arrest sites include bombs, ammunition, detonators, bomb-making manuals and other explosives materials.

Neither the U.S. nor Australian embassies has commented on the arrests, and it was not immediately disclosed how far the attack plans had advanced.

Earlier this month, Indonesian police said they had uncovered evidence of a planned terrorist attack on dignitaries attending ceremonies on the resort island of Bali marking the 10th anniversary of bombings that killed 202 people.

The October 2002 attacks on two Bali nightclubs were carried out by militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group. The bombings were followed by a wave of terror attacks across Indonesia — the world's most populous Muslim country.