Terrorism experts warn Jemaah Islamiah (JI) could be re-energised by two recent deadly police raids in the violence-stricken Indonesian town of Poso, in central Sulawesi.
Fifteen people and one police officer were killed in the most recent raid, on Monday, when authorities attempted to arrest more than 20 men wanted over a spate of bombings, beheadings and drive-by shootings in the religiously-divided town.
The International Crisis Group (ICG), a Brussels-based think tank, warned the high death toll from the two raids had turned the wanted men into victims, and could spark an even wider jihadist war. It said police had become "Enemy No.1" to the group, since the raids.
Most of the fugitives were local members of the terrorist group JI, and only a handful were arrested. Police uncovered a cache of weapons in the earlier raid, including an M-16, rifles, a grenade launcher, a dozen homemade pistols and several homemade bombs.
"A jihad that has been largely directed against local Christians could now be focused on the police as a thoghut (anti-Islamic force) and give a boost to Indonesia's weakened jihadi movement," the ICG said on Wednesday.
"One danger is that the jihadis will try to take the anti-thoghut war outside Poso, targeting police in other cities.
"Another danger is that the JI faction that opposes bombings of western targets and sees Noordin Mohammed Top, South East Asia's most wanted terrorist, as a deviant, will see this jihad as legitimate."
Two of those killed in the separate raids were high-ranking JI members, including Ustadz Riansyah, aka Rian, who trained alongside one of the 2002 Bali bombers, Mukhlas, in Afghanistan in 1987.
The ICG said the two police raids, on January 11 and 22, would be portrayed as unfair and discriminatory against "beleaguered Muslims", instead of "a justified operation to apprehend a group of criminals who have terrorised Central Sulawesi for years".
Poso is one of Indonesia's most sensitive areas, and has long been wracked with violence between Muslims and Christians.
The men were wanted over a string of murders, of pastors, prosecutors and police; of bombings and the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls in October 2005.
The ICG said the jihadist violence in Poso had escalated over the past three years, driven by a sense of unaddressed grievances and a need for revenge over past conflicts.
It called on the Indonesian government to establish an independent commission of inquiry to examine the two January raids to see if any of the deaths could have been avoided.
It also urged authorities to work with Islamic leaders to explain why the Poso suspects were being targeted and why the force was used, and establish a fact-finding body to find solutions to past grievances.
"Despite the fact that no major bomb attacks took place in Indonesia in 2006, terrorism and terrorist cells have not been eradicated," the ICG said.
"It is critically important to ensure that Poso not become the new cause celebre for the country's mujahidin, this time with an anti-government focus." JI was responsible for planning and executing both Bali bombings, in 2002 and 2005, and other attacks on Western targets in Indonesia.