The group was based in Aceh, which continues to prove itself shockingly — shockingly — “immoderate.” “Indonesia militants planned sharia coup, assassinations,” by Olivia Rondonuwu and Sunanda Creagh for Reuters, May 14 (thanks to Twostellas):
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian militants captured in recent police raids were planning a series of attacks including a Mumbai-style hotel siege targeting foreigners and an assault on the president at an independence day ceremony, police said on Friday.
The men also planned to target U.S. President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit the country later this year, and plotted the attacks to instal [sic] sharia law in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, officials said.
Police have arrested and killed several suspected jihadists during a series of raids across Indonesia since February when they discovered a militant training camp in the Sumatran province of Aceh.
National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters that an Aceh-based militant group had planned to attack President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, government officials, and state guests attending an independence day event in August, and would then declare Indonesia an Islamic state ruled by sharia law.
“They planned to attack and murder state officials at the August 17 celebrations. There, they saw all of the state officials as assassination targets, including the state guests attending the ceremony,” Danuri said.
A security source involved in the investigation said that the attackers had planned to lay siege to the palace on Independence Day, staging a coup.
The militants also planned to attack and occupy hotels used by certain communities, understood to mean foreigners, copying the hotel sieges in Mumbai. The targets included U.S. citizens in the capital Jakarta and Java island.
A map of Singapore was found among the militants’ possessions, Danuri said.
The plan to launch the Independence Day attack “confirms they were more interested in targeted assassinations than bombings,” said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamist militancy….