04 April 2016•Update: 11 April 2016
By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia expressed optimism Monday that an anti-terror operation in the mountains of central Sulawesi island may be coming to an end, saying its target had lost at least a dozen members in clashes and arrests.
Posters distributed across public places in Poso town listed the names and photos of the 29 remaining members of the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), led by the country's most wanted man Abu Wardah Santoso.
"Whoever knows those on the wanted list, please contact the nearest police station," the posters said.
Central Sulawesi's police chief told Anadolu Agency that the number of people believed to be hiding in the area had fallen from 41 when Operation Tinombala began in January, which resulted in the deaths of 10 and arrests of two.
"The remaining amount is currently 29 people who are placed on the list of fugitive terrorists in Poso," Brig. Gen. Rudy Sufahriadi said.
He added that among them are two ethnic Uighur from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region identified as Ibrahim and Mustafa Genc, one of Santoso's wives, and the widows of two slain followers.
Security forces had pinpointed the group’s position a month ago, but were advancing in hilly terrain toward a difficult to access area, according to Sufahriadi.
A combined force of more than 2,000 army and police personnel have narrowed the movement of the group down to the mountains of Torire village, maintaining guard over the Lariang river -- a waterway the militants reportedly use to exit the area.
The chief of the National Agency for Combating Terrorism said Monday that it was only a matter of time before Santoso was captured, underlining what he described as the declining morale among his followers after fatal shootouts with police.
"This group is much weaker. Their weapons are dwindling," Kompas.com quoted Inspector Gen. Tito Karnavian as saying.
On Sunday, Sufahriadi claimed that a captured sympathizer of Santoso, identified as Witadi aka Iron, had revealed that the MIT is closely linked with what he described as a "splinter group" of the Philippines’ one-time largest Moro rebel outfit.
"From the information we have obtained from Iron, the weapons supplied to Santoso came from the Ansar al-Khalifa group, one of the splinter groups of the MILF [the Moro Islamist Liberation Front]," detik.com quoted him as saying.
Iron was captured by Indonesia’s counterterrorism squad -- Detachment 88 -- in May and had allegedly participated in military-style training activities conducted by Santoso in Poso since late 2013.
"The firearms supplied to Santoso from the Philippines are worth Rp130 million [around $9,900]," Sufahriadi said.
