Militants on anti-Israel missions: leader

By Ahmad PathoniFri Aug 4, 8:52 AM ET

More than 200 Islamic militants from Southeast Asia have been sent on missions to attack Israel's interests and countries that support the Jewish state, their leader said on Friday.

The fighters have been trained to carry out suicide bombings to revenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, said Suaib Didu, chairman of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement (AMYM).

"We will limit our targets to Israel's vital interests and those that support Israel's aggression in Palestine and Lebanon. We will not carry out attacks indiscriminately," Didu told Reuters.

Hardline militant groups in Indonesia have made claims in the past of sending volunteers to participate in conflicts overseas which have sometimes proved exaggerated.

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the moderate Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, said threats by radical Muslim groups to fight Israel were just "symbolic gestures."

"There are too many obstacles for these people to travel there. It is too costly and the Israeli army is no match for them," he told reporters.

Didu said more than 3,000 people had signed up for the missions but only 217 people from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore had been dispatched abroad so far.

A "show of force" of more than 3,000 volunteers will be held on Saturday in Pontianak in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island, Didu said, adding that many of the 200-plus fighters had fought alongside Afghan fighters during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Western countries such as the United States and Britain as well as businesses could be targeted unless they ceased supporting Israel, he said.

RALLIES

Meanwhile, about 2,000 Muslims rallied outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta to condemn Israel's military action and Washington's support for the Jewish state.

The protesters, including women wearing headscarves, held up banners reading "Save Palestine and Lebanon with Jihad," and "Topple the Terrorist Regime of Israel."

Dozens of young people, some wearing balaclavas, signed up to fight against Israel and filled in a registration form provided by organizers.

"I want to defend Muslims from Israel's savagery," said high school student Fiky Ahmad Fauzi. Similar protests were staged in two other Indonesian cities.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said separately the government was not aware of groups recruiting suicide bombers to go overseas.

"But if people talk, how can we stop them talking?" he said.

The country's foreign ministry said it would not advise volunteers to go to the Middle East and wage war against Israel, but it also could not stop travel of citizens in general.

Australia's Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said the government was taking the Jakarta-based group's stated plans seriously.

"The minister for foreign affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs are investigating what is reported in the papers today and we are treating it very, very seriously," Hockey told Australian television.

But the country's Attorney General Philip Ruddock said the terror alert remained at medium, meaning an attack was possible but there was no direct evidence,

(Additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono and Telly Nathalia in JAKARTA and James Grubel in CANBERRA)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060804/ts_nm/security_indonesia_dc_4