BANGKOK, Thailand — A string of arrests from Thailand to Indonesia has put new pressure on the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, but it does not mean a quick end to the deadly attacks that have hit Southeast Asia, officials and analysts in the region warn.
Authorities hope that last week's arrest of the man known as Hambali, Southeast Asia's most wanted terrorist suspect, will help them uncover cells operating in Indonesia, the Philippines and other parts of the region.
In a further sign of progress, Indonesian police said Saturday that they had arrested nine suspects in recent days in the Aug. 5 bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, that killed 12 people, including a suicide bomber.
But officials and analysts caution that Jemaah Islamiah and its affiliate Al Qaeda have been active for so long in Southeast Asia that it could take years to track down the networks' agents and end the threat.
"The arrest of Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, is a piece of cheerful news to all peace-loving people of Asia," Singaporean Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said. "But the threat of terrorism is not over yet, as there are other Jemaah Islamiah operatives still on the run or who have not surfaced. The terrorist threat is a real and continuing one and will not go away for a long time."
Hambali, who has used numerous aliases, was Al Qaeda's top representative in Southeast Asia and the operations chief of Jemaah Islamiah, authorities say. He helped organize terrorist acts in the region for nearly a decade and might have had a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators say.
Authorities believe that Hambali was the mastermind of last year's nightclub bombings in Bali, which killed 202 people, and the Marriott attack. Jemaah Islamiah seeks to establish a Taliban-style Islamic state in much of Southeast Asia.
Hambali was arrested Monday night in Ayutthaya, a town in central Thailand where he had been living since July.
Authorities have been reluctant to discuss how they located Hambali, saying they did not want to jeopardize their efforts to find other suspects. On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said a tip from a local citizen had led to Hambali's arrest.
On Saturday, the prime minister said the discovery of an "irregular money transaction" had led authorities to three suspected Jemaah Islamiah members who were arrested last month in southern Thailand and from them to Hambali.
