JI Going Strong in Three Hot Spots
THE infrastructure of the South-east Asian terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah (JI), is very much intact in Thailand, Indonesia and the Southern Philippines, a terrorism expert has warned. In fact, the leaders of JI’s four mantiqi or operational cells held a high-level huddle recently in Central Java, ostensibly to discuss future possible targets. JI assigns a geographical area to each mantiqi. For instance, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are covered by Mantiqi 1. Terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside Al-Qaeda and now with Singapore’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, told The Straits Times that although the cells directly connected with the Bali bombings have been disrupted, the JI as an organisation is still effective. Full Story