Indonesia arrests key leader in al-Qaida linked group

By NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police say the country’s elite counterterrorism squad has arrested a convicted militant and suspected leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that has been blamed for a string of past bombings and attacks. A police spokesman said Monday that Abu Rusdan has been seized late Friday near the capital of Jakarta, along with three other suspected members of the Jemaah Islamiyah, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group. The shadowy Southeast Asian network is widely blamed for attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia — including the 2002 bombings in the Indonesian resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.