US5 Million REWARD - MALAYSIAN Terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir (a.k.a. Marwan) Trained by killed Jemaah Islamiah bomb expert Dr Azahari Hussin, a Malaysian

This huge reward for his arrest and conviction got the people in Philippines really excited as he is believed now to be in hiding somewhere in the southern islands providing bomb expertise to Abu Sayyaf militants. Informants in the Philippines have so far received at least US$1.6 million in reward money and worldwide US$62 million has been dished out by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security
to more than 40 people with positive leads to the terrorists. But this is a dangerous game to play to venture into the lion’s nest in those islands.

The Malaysian government if offering only a meager sum of RM50,000 (approx US15,000)

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Terrorist Added to Rewards For Justice Most-Wanted List

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has authorized a new reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Zulkifli bin Hir (a.k.a. Marwan), a terrorist believed to be involved in multiple deadly bomb attacks in the Philippines. Zulkifli bin Hir has been added to most-wanted list of the Rewards for Justice program, administered by the Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Zulkifli bin Hir is a Malaysian citizen born in 1966 in Muar, Johor. An engineer trained in the United States, he allegedly heads the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) terrorist organization and is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah's central command.

He has been present in the Philippines since August 2003, where he is believed to have conducted bomb-making training for the Abu Sayyaf Group. His younger brother, Taufik bin Abdul Halim, a.k.a. Dany, was involved in the 2001 Jakarta Atrium Mall bombing, and currently is in detention in Indonesia. Anyone with information on Zulkifli bin Hir, or on any past or planned act of international terrorism against United States persons or property anywhere in the world, is urged to contact the Rewards for Justice program:
2007/236

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Malaysian operative was tutored by JI bomb expert; By EDDIE CHUA ; STAR

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian Zulkifli Hir, who is high on the United States' wanted terrorist list, is an engineering wizard with a penchant for explosives. Zulkifli, who once worked for a local council in Malaysia, was a protégé of Jemaah Islamiah bomb expert Dr Azahari Hussin, a Malaysian who was killed by Indonesian anti-terrorism police 18 months ago. A regional security source told The Star that Zulkifli and another senior JI operative, Dulmatin, were tutored in the art of bomb-making by Dr Azahari. “They are still providing their expertise to Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines.

“Zulkifli, who heads a JI cell there, is operating in central Mindanao. “We believe he still maintains links with JI leaders in Indonesia and also with Dulmatin,” said the source.

On Tuesday, the United States alleged that Zulkifli was behind a series of deadly bombings in the Philippines and offered a US$5mil (RM17.5mil) reward for information leading to his arrest. The source said that Zulkifli attended primary school in Muar before continuing with his secondary education at Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak in Seremban from 1979 to 1983. His peers remember him as being a jihad sympathiser from young. “He studied engineering in the US on a Malaysian government scholarship. On completing his degree, he become a mujahideen fighter in Afghanistan,” said the source. He was deployed to the combat zone to defuse Soviet bombs and land mines, which were then recycled and used by the mujahideen to fight the Russians, added the source.

After three years in Afghanistan, he returned to Malaysia where he found a job as a district engineer with a local council. In touch with various militant groups operating in Chechnya and Bosnia, he enlisted Malaysians as freedom fighters in both war-torn countries. Zulkifli, who is married with four children, was said to be the head of the local JI chapter, when police started their probe on his militant activities in 2002. He is also suspected of being behind the JI’s Southern Bank robbery in Petaling Jaya in May 2001, which resulted in his close friend Adnan Daud being gunned down by police. Zulkifli is also wanted by police here for his role in the murder of Lunas assemblyman Dr Joe Fernandez in early 2000. He fled the country in January 2002, when police raided and detained JI members who operated the Lukmanul Hakiem religious school in Ulu Tiram, Johor. In 2003, Malaysian police offered a RM50,000 reward for his capture.

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U.S. Puts $5M Bounty on Terror Suspect
The Associated Press; Tuesday, March 27, 2007; 11:04 AM
WASHINGTON -- The United States on Tuesday offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of a U.S.-trained Malaysian engineer accused of involvement in a series of deadly bombings in the Philippines. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice approved the bounty for Zulkifli bin Hir, who goes by the alias "Marwan" and is believed to be a senior leader in several southeast Asian terrorist groups tied to al-Qaida, the State Department said in a statement. Bin Hir, 40, is thought to run the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia organization and be a member of the central command of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida affiliate blamed for numerous attacks, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in Indonesia, the statement said.

He is also thought to have conducted explosives training for the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant group based in the Philippines where Bin Hir is believed to have lived since August 2003, the department said. His younger brother is now jailed in Indonesia for involvement in a 2001 bombing of a Jakarta mall, said the statement. Bin Hir has long been sought by Philippines authorities and last August, two Filipino police officers were killed in a clash while trying to approach his suspected hideout about 560 miles southeast of Manila. Rice authorized the reward under the "Rewards for Justice" program, which is run by the State Department and seeks information leading to the capture of wanted terrorists. Since its creation in 1984, the program has paid more than $62 million to more than 40 people who have helped capture terror suspects, including informants in the Philippines that have received at least $1.6 million in reward money.

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Sectarian Conflict and Terrorism in Indonesia

By Zachary Abuza; May 3, 2005 06:50 PM

In early April 2005, Indonesian police announced that they had captured a letter written by a Sumatran-based JI cell to one of the organization’s leader’s and top bomb-maker, Dr. Azahari bin Husin. The author of the 7-page letter written in a mix of Bahasa and pidgin Arabic, not only mentioned that bomb-making materiel was being stockpiled, but that there was a 12-man cell preparing to become shaheeds (martyrs). The letter explained to the leader that in both materiel and mental preparation the plans were well advanced. JI is down, but it certainly is not out. Though they aspire to increase their rate of attack, which now occur on a roughly one-year timetable, there is little evidence to suggest that they are capable of speeding up that timetable in the near future.

While they attempt to build more bombs, they need to also focus on regrouping and recruiting new members to fill their depleted ranks. JI’s primary strategy to do this is to foment sectarian conflict. Unfortunately further evidence has emerged in the past few days.

In October 2004, 123 IEDs were discovered in a cache hidden in a Muslim cemetery outside of Poso. On 28 March 2005, Indonesian police raided safe houses used by Islamic militants in Ambon, seizing a cache of some 95 IEDs and ammunition.

Then, on 24 April, another sectarian conflict flared in Mamasa Regency in Central Sulawesi. A gang of Muslim Kommandos torched houses in a Christian community, killing six. The first suspect arrested in conjunction with the attacks admitted his plans to carry out terror attacks and bombings across the country. His arrests were followed by two bombings in April in Poso.
On 2 May 2005, Indonesian police arrested three suspects wanted in conjunction with the August 2003 bombing of the JW Marriott in Jakarta. [12 people have already been sentenced in conjunction with the attack]. Alarmingly, the arrest took place in a small village outside of Poso, Sulawesi. The three were in possession of detonators, two IEDs, two handguns, rifles and ammo, 16 VCDs about Osama bin Laden, five instruction books on jihad, a book on the sectarian conflict in Ambon, and several bomb-making manuals.

All three, as well as a fourth who escaped, were involved in not only the sectarian bloodletting in Ambon in 1999-2000, but also the 24 April attacks in Mamasa. We have a clear connection between the same people engaged in both international jihad and sectarian conflict. The three were not disaffected locals, but educated individuals all in their mid-thirties. While one was a religious teacher, one was had an engineering background and had studied in Australia, wile the third was a computer expert.
Clearly militant seek to spoil the fragile peace in the Malukus and Sulawesi, and provoke a heavy-handed government response, affirming to the moderate majority that the government is corrupt and anti-Muslim.
With sectarian conflict also on the rise in both Mindanao, Philippines and Southern Thailand, where over 600 people have been killed since fighting commenced in January 2004, it is clear JI seeks to create a broader conflict, to instill their Manichean world view, and create a new generation of recruits who are ready to wage jihad in defense of their religion.
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Police hope to nab top terror suspects after new arrest

Jun 20th, 2003, AFP

The police hope to track down six top leaders of militant group Jemaah Islamiah after the recent arrest of a suspected terrorist and the discovery of bomb-making chemicals, an intelligence official said today. The suspect, Alias Osman, 36, was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on June 9 and led police to a cache of chemicals similar to the ones used in the Bali bombings in Indonesia last year which killed more than 200 people, mainly Western tourists. He is being held as a suspected member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network accused of carrying out the Bali attack, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Bomb expert The chemicals, buried in a dustbin on a palm oil plantation in Perak, were labelled as potassium chloride, calcium chloride and aluminium powder. "We found some chemicals, including some acids, and we have sent the chemicals for analysis to ascertain the contents," the official said. "Alias was told to bury them on the plantation, but he has not told us who obtained them for him. He says he does not know what the chemicals were for." The Malay Mail newspaper reported that there was about one kilogram each of potassium chloride amd calcium chloride in the bin, along with 14 detonators in the bin.

The paper said Alias had been trained by bomb-expert Azahari Husin, a Malaysian wanted by Indonesian police for his role in the Bali attacks. Azahari is top of the list of six Malaysian militants being hunted throughout Southeast Asia. Bounty on offer"We believe they are currently under immense pressure wherever they are," the intelligence official said. "The regional situation in Indonesia and Thailand should help us in arresting the six." Recent arrests in Thailand and beefed-up security laws in Indonesia showed the two countries were serious in the fight against terrorism, he said.

Malaysian police have offered a bounty of RM50,000 for the arrest of Azahari and the five other suspects -- Noor Din Mohamad Top, Shamsul Bahri Hussein, Amran Mansor, Zulkifli Hir and Zulkepli Marzuki. Apart from the six "there are still a few hundred members of the Jemaah Islamiah who have gone underground here," the official said. "We are working hard to identify them and pick them up as soon as they resurface."

JI, which seeks to create a pan-Islamic state across Southeast Asia, is accused of aiming to destabilise the region through terror attacks. Malaysia is already holding a total of 90 suspected Islamic militants, many of them alleged JI members, under the Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial. - AFP

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