Indonesia: Terror group's last foreign member killed

By Ainur Rohmah

TUBAN, Indonesia (AA) – The last of a foreign contingent of a terrorist group that until recently was headed by Indonesia’s most wanted man has died in a shootout in a mountainous region of Sulawesi island.

Brig. Gen. Rudy Sufahriadi, Central Sulawesi provincial police chief, told Anadolu Agency that a Chinese national known to be a member of the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) was shot dead Wednesday in a gunfight with two men.

“Allegedly the fugitive who has been shot was Ibrahim, not an Indonesian,” he said.

The death comes in the wake of Indonesia extending a military operation Aug. 11 with the aim of capturing the 16 suspected remaining members of MIT, after leader Abu Wardah Santoso was killed in a shootout.

The operation -- Tinombala -- was launched in January, after which a number of fatal clashes, arrests and surrenders occurred involving the group. Membership is believed to have dropped from 40 in January to 15 with Ibrahim's death.

Sufahriadi said Wednesday’s clash occurred in the Padopi region, near troubled Poso town where the militants’ hideout is located, after the two men had reportedly descended the mountain in search of food.

While the man identified as “Ibrahim” was shot dead, and his body later recovered, the other armed suspect fled.

Sufahriadi said Wednesday that Ibrahim was the last remaining ethnic Uighur member of the group

In March, Indonesian security forces killed two Uighur belonging to the network and four other Uighur men were also jailed last year for attempting to join the MIT.

Santoso pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014 and the government tightened security and focused its operation against his group after a Jan. 14 terrorist attack in central Jakarta killed four civilians and four Daesh-affiliated assailants.

Human rights organizations, activists and analysts have said that Uighur have been subject to religious, cultural and language restrictions, which have led them to flee China.