INDONESIA: Security forces launch a major anti-terror drill ahead of the Christmas holidays

Record ID: 351890

  • Title: INDONESIA: Security forces launch a major anti-terror drill ahead of the Christmas holidays
  • Date: 22nd December 2008
  • Summary: JAKARTA, INDONESIA (DECEMBER 21, 2008) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BOROBUDUR HOTEL WHERE ANTI-TERROR DRILL IS BEING CONDUCTED HEAVILY ARMED ANTI TERROR POLICE AT SITE HELICOPTER HEADING TO HOTEL SITE ANTI-TERROR POLICE ARRIVING AT SITE ANTI-TERROR UNIT OF ARMED FORCES RAPPEL DOWN FROM HELICOPTER K-9 GOING DOWN FROM HELICOPTER HOSTAGE AT HOTEL ARMED-FORCES MEMBERS BLOWING UP HOT
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVABSIZHC4DORLCIKGL0WNUOBY5L
  • Story Text: Indonesian security forces conducted an anti-terror drill at a local hotel in the capital on Sunday (December 21), ahead of Christmas and New Year holidays. The festive period is one during which the Southeast Asian nation has previously suffered bomb attacks.
    The three-day exercise, involving more than 6,500 personnel will be conducted in the waters of the busy Malacca Strait, as well as hotels and transport hubs in major cities and in Bali.
    The drill includes a simulation of a hotel siege following the deadly attacks in Mumbai, where hotels were major targets.
    Some 550 personnel of the Indonesia anti-terror army and police, practised jumping out of a helicopter using ropes above the ground to "evacuate hostages". Special anti-terror units broke the glass window and secured the hostages on site. This exercise also involved the hotel employees and civilians.
    Indonesia has not suffered a major attack for three years, but it is still considered to be at risk from Islamic militants.
    Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but has large minorities of other religions, including Christians. There were a series of bomb attacks on churches on Christmas eve in 2000.
    Raids often involving Detachment 88, an anti-terrorism unit funded and trained by the United States and Australia, have led to the arrest of hundreds of militant suspects in Indonesia.
    But illustrating the dangers the country still faces, police recently foiled a plan to bomb an oil storage facility in north Jakarta. In July, police found bombs stored in the ceiling of a house in Palembang, Sumatra, and linked the group involved to the regional militant organisation Jemaah Islamiah.
    Jemaah Islamiah has been blamed for deadly attacks in recent years in Indonesia, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
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