Nurdin Hasan and Ismira Lutfia – The Aceh branch of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, claims it is ready to send a first wave of trained guerilla fighters to fight Israel next week, including two snipers and four suicide bombers, the group said.
"We call them the Martyr Bomb Squad, not suicide bombers, which has been labelled negatively by the foreign media," Yusuf Al Qardhani said in Aceh on Friday.
He said the 15 mujahidin, or Islamic warriors, would be dispatched to Palestine to fight the Israeli forces who attacked the Gaza Strip.
"They were selected from a group of 80 who passed a four-day interview and physical training in the mountains of North Aceh last month," Yusuf said, adding that of those 80, only 50 were fit to be sent abroad.
"They will be dispatched not only to Palestine, but also to other Islamic countries. We call them international mujahidin who are ready to be assigned anywhere to fight for Muslims," he said. "They are already God's soldiers who are ready to defend Islam."
Yusuf declined to give the individuals' real names, but did provide their aliases. The six are Abu Jagat, 23; Abu Faiz, 25; Abu Nagan, 21, and Abu Syam, 25. The snipers are Abu Khalifah, 27, and Abu Rincong, 24. "Abu Faiz will be the commander of the first group," he said.
Yusuf said the six had trained with Abu Alyas, a mujahidin with combat experience in Afghanistan, who has also fought alongside the Abu Sayyaf group in the southern Philippines, and who is a member of Hamas.
"He is an Indonesian who returned for a while to Indonesia to train Acehnese mujahidin who will be sent to Palestine," he said.
"During training, [Abu Alyas, 38] said the four people were physically and mentally ready to join the Martyr Bomb Squad," he said. "They are true mujahidin."
Reporters were not allowed access to the mujahidin, who had been blessed by Aceh ulama Teungku Abuya Jamaluddin Wali. The ulama, in his address to the fighters, said that jihad was one of the main pillars of Islam.
Yusuf said the fighters would first be sent to Jakarta to collect their passports before flying to Palestine.
A spokesman for the FPI's central office, Soleh Mahmud, said the fighters would depart next week.
"We dispatched two batches of jihadists in January, and it has been three weeks now since they left," Soleh claimed.
"Jihadists who have the correct travel documents and finances are sent first."