21 March 2016•Update: 28 March 2016
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
Indonesia’s army was searching Monday for the black box of a military helicopter that crashed during an operation to catch the country's most wanted man, killing 13 personnel in central Sulawesi island.
Army commander Gatot Nurmantyo told national news agency Antara that an investigation team “is still looking for the black box to know the exact cause of the accident."
The chopper -- bought from Canada in 2012 -- is believed to have exploded then fallen into a plantation in troubled Poso town in Sulawesi province Sunday evening during an operation against a Daesh-affiliated group led by Abu Wardah Santoso.
President Joko Widodo expressed sympathy to the families of the dead, whose remains are currently being identified by a Disaster Victim Identification team.
"My deep condolences over the death of 13 army personnel in the helicopter accident in Poso,” he posted on his Twitter account. “They died in the line of duty."
Meanwhile, National Police Chief General Badrodin Haiti insisted that the operation against the Santoso-led eastern Indonesian terror cell would continue.
"The operation will keep continuing and will not stop because of the accident… because we already know and have detected the location where they [Santoso's group] are hiding," Detik.com quoted him saying Monday.
He refused to provide further details on the whereabouts of members of the East Indonesia Mujahideen.
Army spokesperson Major General Tatang Sulaiman said that further investigations are ongoing into the accident in Kasiguncu village, allegedly caused by stormy weather.
“Because 10 minutes before it [the helicopter] was due to land at a stadium in Poso, it was raining," Kompas.com quoted him as saying.
A combined force of 2,000 police and army officers is presently hunting Santoso -- suspected of involvement in the deaths of a number of policemen and civilians -- in the jungles of Poso.
