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Nov. 11, 2005 / 1:30 PM

JI bomber was aiming to hit churches

MALANG, Indonesia, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Indonesian police believe terrorist Azahari bin Husin was planning to bomb Christian churches when he was killed.

Elite anti-terror forces hunted down the Malaysian-born chief bomber of the Islamist Jemaah Ismailiya Wednesday at a villa in Batu, near the city of Malang in East Java. Bin Husin reportedly blew himself up to avoid being captured.

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Now Indonesian police officials believe bin Husin and his group were preparing a series of bomb attacks against churches in Malang over the Christmas holidays.

Asia News reported Thursday that Indonesian intelligence officials believed bin Husin's target was a large church in Malang.

Malang is a tourist resort area 50 miles south of Surabaya, the capital of East Java province. It is home to many Catholic religious orders.

Investigators believe that Azahari was planning a series of bomb attacks on Christmas night and during the festive season. Something similar had already occurred on Christmas Day 2000, when bombs exploded in five churches in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities, Catholic World News reported Friday.

Protestant churches in Sulawesi have been targets of attacks in recent years, and Christians in East Java have been victims of extremist violence.

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