Telly Nathalia, Reuters  --  Arab News

JAKARTA, 20 April 2004 — Just days after being declared a terror suspect, Indonesia’s most prominent militant Muslim cleric yesterday endorsed the bombing of US interests in Iraq and called the Bali bombers misguided but praiseworthy fighters.

Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of leading the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network and who will soon complete time in jail for immigration offenses, also indicated attacking the US government on American soil was acceptable.

His comments are likely to anger Washington and heighten pressure on the world’s most populous Muslim nation to take a harder line against the 65-year-old preacher. Bashir is due to walk free on April 30, although the fresh investigation could allow police to keep him in detention.

“If you want to oppose American interests with a bomb in Iraq it can be done, in Afghanistan, it can be done, because they are conflict areas. Or, let’s say, in America itself,” Bashir told reporters at Jakarta’s Salemba jail.

“But in Indonesia, because America has never attacked Indonesia with weapons, therefore I say it is not allowed.”

Sitting on the floor not far from his jail cell, Bashir said he would fight the legal case building against him. Police last week named Bashir a terror suspect in a fresh investigation and are focusing on possible links to the 2002 Bali bombings and his alleged leadership of Jemaah Islamiah.

Authorities blame Jemaah Islamiah for the Bali attacks that killed 202 people. Bashir was arrested just after Bali, although he has never been named a suspect in that atrocity.