Top suspect in Bali identified

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Investigators revealed Monday that the top suspect in the Bali blasts studied under the alleged spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, which has links to al-Qaida.\nThe announcement strengthens allegations, voiced by several foreign intelligence agencies, that Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for the Oct. 12 nightclub bombings that killed more than 190 people in one of Asia's most frequented tourist spots.\nMonday's announcement by two of Indonesia's top security officials further suggests the suspect identified as Amrozi, who authorities say has confessed, was a close associate of the cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir. They also said Amrozi held four planning meetings in Bashir's hometown.\nThe 64-year-old Muslim cleric has also been detained but on different charges. A Jakarta court on Monday ordered his detention to continue after rejecting his appeal for unlawful arrest.\nPolice also arrested two more men in Amrozi's home village of Tenggulun and, based on testimony from one of them, uncovered a weapons cache near the village containing an M-16 automatic rifle, two pistols and ammunition.\nAmrozi's position in the organization remains unclear. Police say as many as 10 of Amrozi's accomplices, including three of his brothers, are likely in hiding, possibly in neighboring countries.\nAnd Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged operations chief, a Muslim cleric named Riduan Isamudin--also known as Hambali--is still at large. Indonesian police said that Amrozi admitted under interrogation to having met both Bashir, currently held at a police hospital in the capital of Jakarta, and Hambali, who is now Southeast Asia's most wanted man.\nMaj. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika, the top investigator, said Amrozi had religious instruction from Bashir in neighboring Malaysia, where both men were living in the late 1990s.\nIn Jakarta, National Police Chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar told parliament Amrozi and his accomplices planned the attack in Solo, the Javanese city where Bashir ran an Islamic boarding school until his arrest last month.\n"Before carrying out the bombings in Bali, Amrozi held four meetings in Solo in early September," Bachtiar said. He did not indicate whether Bashir or his followers participated in the meetings.\nBashir and Hambali entered the spotlight in late 2001 and early 2002 after Singapore and Malaysia arrested scores of alleged Jemaah Islamiyah militants and accused them of plotting to blow up Western interests in Southeast Asia.\nSo far, Bashir is not a suspect in the Bali bombings. He was arrested after the attack on charges of masterminding a series of church bombings in 2000 and plotting to assassinate Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.