Indonesia has captured the head of Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), police said on Friday, marking what appears to be a major blow for a group blamed for a string of deadly bombings.
The man, who was caught on Saturday in the central Java city of Yogyakarta, was named as Zarkasih, the chief of the country's anti-terrorist unit told a news conference. He is also known as Mbah, which means grandfather in the Javanese language.
The announcement came just two days after police said they had caught the country's most-wanted Islamic militant, Abu Dujana, who heads a military wing of JI. "He is the emergency head of JI. He is above Abu Dujana and was captured on the same day," said Suryadarma Salim Nasution, who leads Detachment 88, the country's anti-terrorist unit.
At the news conference, police showed video testimonies from Zarkasih and Dujana, in which the former said he was acting head. Police said the bespectacled Zarkasih, who was dressed in a T-shirt and was clean shaven in the video, had received military training in Afghanistan.