JAKARTA, May 11- The Indonesian police's anti-terror squad Densus 88 has conducted a massive nationwide manhunt against those suspected of being involved in terroristic activities, arresting some and killing those who fought it out with the authorities.The squad launched the manhunt operations in known terrorist hideouts in West Java, Central Java, Banten and Lampung provinces following the recent arrest of a person linked to a terror group in Jakarta that allegedly planned an attack against the Myanmar embassy in retaliation for the Yangon government's crackdown on the minority ethnic Muslims of Rohingya in Myanmar.
On Wednesday, in West Java province's Bandung regency, the anti- terror squad had a shootout with terrorists that lasted for more than nine hours resulting in the death of three terror suspects and the arrest of one.
In a raid conducted in the house of the slain terrorists, the police recovered assault guns and improvised bombs made from pipes and scrap metals.
On Thursday the anti-terror squad also conducted a manhunt in Kebumen and Kendal in Central Java province where three terrorists were killed and four others arrested.
Around the same time, members of the anti-terror squad also arrested four suspected terrorists in Pondok Aren, Ciputat, Serpong and Tangerang in Banten province.
The squad also killed a terrorist and arrested two others in Batang, Kendal regency.
On Friday, the police arrested four more terror suspects in Lampung province, Sumatra. Police said that those arrested in Lampung were linked to the ones arrested in Kebumen.
Indonesian police headquarters Spokesman Brig. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said that the terrorists recently killed and arrested by anti- terror squad were members of a well-organized terror group.
They were skilled in using guns, assembling explosives and getting funds to finance their operations.
Amar said the terror syndicate robbed banks to finance their operations. The banks that the syndicate robbed included the state banks BRI in Lampung, Batang and Grobogan.
The syndicate carted hundreds of millions of Indonesian rupiah from the banks that they robbed.
"They were linked to Santoso from Poso who is now still at large," Amar told newsmen on Thursday.
Santoso is the leader of a terror gang that has been active in anti-government activities and bank heists in Poso, Central Sulawesi province. The province used to be a hotbed of sectarian conflict.
Santoso led a militant Muslim group that fought against Christian group during the conflict in 2000.
His group was identified as responsible for the fatal shooting of a police officer in Poso last year.
More than a decade after the Bali bombing that killed more than 200 foreigners and local residents in 2002, Indonesia is still struggling to quell terrorism.
The results of police investigation against arrested terrorists earlier showed that the terrorists want to turn Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, into an Islamic state to be governed under Islamic laws.
