Jemaah Islamiyah militant group regains strength: experts

Illustrative image. (Photo: egagah.blogspot.com)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has regained strength in Indonesia and could make a new generation of extremists, warned the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) on April 27.

The group is blamed for major attacks, including the bombings in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002.

It does not pose an immediate threat and its leaders have rejected violence to form an Islamic state, said a report of the institute.

However, the group is also building a clandestine armed force in Indonesia, and there is a risk that a militant faction could emerge from the wider organisation as it steps up recruitment.

According to security analyst Sidney Jones of the IPAC, the current JI could give rise to a militant splinter that could be more professional in its organisation, training and recruitment than anything Indonesian extremism has to offer today.

The group was founded by exiled Indonesian militants in Malaysia in the 1980s, and grew to include cells across Southeast Asia.

The Al Qaeda-linked group was blamed for terror attacks, mainly in Indonesia, that struck Western targets, including the 2002 bombing on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

The attacks prompted Indonesian security forces to mount a sustained crackdown that wiped out most of JI. However, it has been regaining strength since 2010 and recent arrests of members suggest it should still be considered a danger.-VNA