Indonesian police have uncovered a series of videos of a terrorist group where an elite group can be seen training how to kill people. The training videos were seized from the laptop of a suspected terrorist who was recently arrested from a two-storey house in Central Java used by the Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
The house was used by the terrorist network to train recruits in handling weapons and assembling bombs for seven years until 2018. Indonesian authorities in recent times have arrested more than 20 suspected terrorists of Jemaah Islamiah that has given a new insight into the operations of the terrorist group who would then be sent back to fight in Syria.
The Ugly Face of Terror
Indonesian police recently released a compilation of the training videos unearthed from the fenced-in villa in Gintungan village in Semarang regency. The footages show militants described as JI special force being trained and are from 2013 to 2018. The videos shows senior members of the group training the group using weapons, kidnapping simulations, hand-to-hand combats and physical training.
The training also included self-defense exercises, military and ambush training. According to reports, this is just one of the groups that were trained for terror attacks. Each group comprised up to 15 recruits and 95 of them have reportedly completed their training, police said. Most of these members sent to Syria were aged 19-23 years who had to undergo a seven months training at the camp.
Big Breakthrough
Authorities said that these members were sent to Syria to fight alongside terror group Jabhat al-Nusra, or Al Nusra Front. However, this is just one of the many training camps running in Indonesia. Police said there are at least 12 such camps training scores of terrorists. The training t each of the camps cost around $6,000 per month, according to police.
So far, JI has spent around $28,000 to send groups of 10 to 12 trainees to fight in Syria. JI is linked to al-Qaeda and has been responsible for a string of deadly bombings in Indonesia. The breakthrough comes less than a month after the arrest of JI leader Aris Sumarsono, known as Zulkarnaen, one of the masterminds the 2002 Bali bombings.
The discovery of the house and its dark history between 2011 and 2018 was made by Indonesia's anti-terrorism squad, Densus 88, amid ongoing operations against terrorists since the shocking Bali bombings. That same month, a key plotter in the Bali bombings, Taufik Bulaga, alias Upik Lawanga, was also arrested by the police.
The privately owned villa is currently empty and under renovation, according to local media reports.
