Terror agent gunned down, Jakarta on alert

Police confirmed Santoso, among the first Indonesians to pledge loyalty to Islamic State, was killed in a gun battle with security forces on the island of Sulawesi on Monday. 

But officials say the threat level in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation remains high. Rudy Sufahriadi, the police chief for central Sulawesi, said the security operation in Poso, where the US-designated “terrorist” Santoso had been hiding, would continue. “There is a possibility of a backlash,” he said. “They are not terrorists if they do not take revenge.” 

Chief Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters in Jakarta operations would be intensified in regions considered hotbeds for radicalism. Around 20 members of Santoso’s Mujahidin Indonesia Timur remain in hiding in the jungles of Sulawesi, where Indonesia has been running a major security operation for years. 

A team of police and military personnel also shot a man believed to be Santoso’s right-hand man on Monday, a move officials say will weaken the group.