Indonesia militant leader arrested

After the U.S. strikes on Afghanistan, Thalib called for a holy war

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The leader of one of Indonesia's largest Muslim militant groups has been charged with inciting violence, police said.

Jaffar Umar Thalib was arrested on Saturday in Surabaya after he made a radio broadcast last week rejecting a peace deal with Christians.

Seven other members of Laskar Jihad were arrested with their leader, said police, who would not reveal the charges against them.

Thalib is to be sent to the capital, Jakarta, for further questioning, police said.

The Muslim militant urged his followers on Friday to reject a recent peace deal between Muslims and Christians that had mostly stemmed three years of religious fighting in the region.

"From today, we will no longer talk about reconciliation," he told around 5,000 people at mosque in the Maluku provincial capital, Ambon.

One day after Thalib's radio address, there was an attack on a Christian village in the Ambon area.

Up to 9,000 people have been killed in the Malukus -- located 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Jakarta and known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule -- since fighting broke out in 1999.

In October Thalib joined a call for radical Islamic groups in Indonesia to attack Americans as part of a "jihad" or holy war following the U.S. strikes against Afghanistan.

"This shows that the U.S. is clearly a nation that has made an enemy of Islam and this is a very dangerous position for America," Thalib said at the time.

"God willing, this will raise the worldwide solidarity of the Islamic people, especially the Islamic people of Indonesia, in facing America as the biggest enemy of the Islamic people," he said then.