Indonesian police fight suspected militants in deadly gun battle in restive Aceh province

Police fight militant suspects in Indonesian Aceh

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian police clashed with suspected Islamic militants in a deadly gun battle in Aceh on Thursday hours after announcing that 14 prisoners in the restive province had been charged with planning terrorist attacks, officials said.

Police were investigating whether the militants were linked to a terrorist threat to shipping in nearby Malacca Strait, national police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters in Jakarta, without elaborating.

News broke on Thursday that Singapore’s navy has warned that an unnamed terrorist group is planning attacks on oil tankers in the strait, which is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

A police officer was killed and at least 10 were wounded in the battle in Aceh’s Lamkabeue village, police chief Maj. Gen. Aditya Warman told reporters in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Danuri said there were casualties among the suspected militants, but he declined to give details.

The battle comes in a continuing police crackdown on suspected militants in Aceh that police suspect are linked to the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.

Police have charged 14 suspected militants arrested in restive Aceh province with planning terrorist attacks, police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

The men were caught in several raids since Feb. 22, when the first four were arrested by police after a gunbattle in a suspected militant training camp in Aceh’s mountains.

They confessed to undergoing paramilitary training, including weapons use and hand-to-hand combat at the raided camp in preparation for a terrorist attack, he said, declining to specify the alleged target.

Under Indonesia’s tough counterterrorism laws enacted in 2003, a conviction for planning a terrorist attack can carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Another suspect was shot dead by police after he fled with two men on a bus that was stopped at a police checkpoint before dawn Wednesday, Aritonang said. Witnesses said the other two men escaped.