BANGKOK, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- The prime minister of Thailand said Saturday the capture of Asia's most wanted terrorist, Hambali, helped wipe out the terrorist network in his country.
Hambali, also known as Riduan Isamuddin, was captured Monday in the temple city of Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok and was handed over to American officials and flown out of Thailand to an undisclosed destination. Earlier, three of his associates were also captured.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said an "irregular money transaction" led to the rollup of Hambali's entire network in Thailand, CNN reported.
This "resulted in the arrest of the first case, the second, the third, and now we have got the fourth man -- Mr. Hambali -- who is regarded as the last one in our land," Thaksin said. "Finally we have got them all."
Hambali was the operations chief of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and the suspected mastermind behind a spate of bombings in Southeast Asia, including the October 2002 Bali blasts.
