Andra Wisnu, Jakarta – Despite a significant decrease in terror attacks over the past three years, the recent arrest of 10 alleged Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) members in South Sumatra has raised the possibility of future terrorist attacks, experts said Saturday.

They warned further acts of terrorism could be forthcoming because al-Qaeda-linked terror plotter Noordin M. Top was still at large, and because of available local and international support in funding and hiding terror suspects.

"It's not very hard run a suicide bomb operation because it doesn't require much money or many people," Sidney Jones, a researcher at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, told The Jakarta Post. "What is interesting to me is how Noordin managed to connect with JI in Singapore."

One of the 10 detainees, M.H., has been identified as a Singaporean citizen with links to Noordin, a Malaysian citizen. M.H. was arrested in a June 28 police raid in Sekayu district in Musi Banyuasin, South Sumatra.

"The Singaporean government has crushed the terrorist network in their region, but from this latest arrest, it seems remnants clearly abound," Sidney said.

The arrest of M.H. led to the subsequent counterterrorism strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday in which police arrested nine terror suspects and confiscated several explosives, which police said were more powerful than the ones used in the 2002 Bali bombing.

Sidney said the latest arrests showed a better understanding by the police of the terrorist network in Indonesia. But she said the fact Noordin was still free demonstrated the resilience of terrorist cells in the country and the region.

"I think everything the police has done so far is aimed at finding Noordin, but there is a network in Indonesia and overseas that is willing to protect him. By now, Noordin would have perfected his hiding skills," she said.

Adrianus Meliala, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, said police needed more legal power, such as the authority to arrest suspects without due process, if they wished to find Noordin. "But that brings up the dilemma of how far we want to go in countering terrorism by sacrificing human rights," he said.

The House of Representatives amended the draconian 2002 government regulation in lieu of an antiterrorism law, citing human rights considerations as a factor.

Speaking in Kuala Lumpur at the sidelines of a meeting of eight developing Islamic nations in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the detentions of terror suspects suspected of plotting to attack Western targets had weakened but not crippled terrorist movements in the country.

"We are not sure whether we have crippled (them), but the fact that they are on the run, and the fact that we have uncovered various terrorist cells in the past three years means that they are within our reach," he said as quoted by Reuters.