Asia fears mounting militant Islamic network

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda says terrorists are moving across Asia's borders

By Nick Easen and Maria Ressa
CNN

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A day after the horrific U.S. terrorist attack shocked the world, the American embassy closed in Jakarta, capital of the world's largest Muslim nation.

As the U.S Government received information that extremist elements may be planning to target its interests, suspicions rose over the role of cross-border militant networks in Southeast Asia.

"There is a clear indication and evidence of cross-border movement of people with these ill intentions", Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, told CNN after the arrest of Indonesians and Malaysians following Wednesday's bomb threat at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

He quickly dismissed speculation that Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who has been singled out as the primary suspect of the U.S. attack, could be in Jakarta.

Jakarta police have prevented two planned attacks on the U.S. embassy, now closed.

However bin Laden's links with the region, and the many Islamic militant groups sympathetic towards his holy war or "jihad", have recently been bought into question.

Terrorism expert Kenneth Katzman of the U.S. Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service highlights this in a recent report, saying cells of bin Laden's Al-Quida network have been identified or suspected in Malaysia and the Philippines.

Recently concerns over bin Laden were also raised between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, officials in The Australian newspaper werec quoted saying.

The rise of an Asian Islamic network

Potential threats on the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, as well unexplained bomb attacks, have been linked to extremist groups in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Malaysia, Southeast Asia's second largest Muslim nation, has also suffered from foiled terrorist attacks and a recent bomb scare that led to the evacuation of the Petronas Towers, the world's tallest building.

The first sign radical Islamic groups from Indonesia and the Philippines were working together came last year when the Philippine Army captured a rebel base in the south of the country and soldiers found two Indonesian passports.

Two months later a bomb attack in Jakarta targeted, but narrowly missed killing, the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia.

The Philippines link

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was convicted of leading a conspiracy to bomb U.S. airliners.

Manila was first linked to international terrorism in 1995 when a bomb accidently exploded in an apartment and alerted police to the work of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef.

He was convicted in 1996 of leading a conspiracy to bomb U.S. airliners in Asia. A year later he was also convicted of masterminding the World Trade Center bombing.

Yousef has also been linked to bin Laden.

Pakistani militant Abdul Hakim Murad was arrested in 1995 in Manila, in connection with a failed plot to assassinate Pope John Paul.

Murad, a trained pilot, was extradited to the U.S. and convicted for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Documents and a laptop computer seized from the apartment where Murad was arrested contained many plans for attacking U.S. targets.

One, codenamed Operation Bojinka, detailed plans to bomb 11 commercial airliners flying to the U.S.

Militant Philippine Islamic group Abu Sayaf still demand the release of Murad and other militants convicted in the 1993 to plot to blow up the World Trade Center.

Reuters contributed to this report.