Indonesia police kill, capture terror suspects in Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia police said on Monday they had shot dead an Islamic militant involved in the beheading of three schoolgirls in 2005 and captured three other men in raids in Aceh province in Sumatra.

Police carried out the raids around Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, following the arrest on Sunday morning of six terror suspects in Medan, North Sumatra.

Scores of suspected militants have been arrested in recent weeks, most of whom had trained at a camp in Aceh. Some of those arrested or killed in raids in recent weeks had been involved in bomb attacks in Indonesia.

Security experts have warned that Indonesia's militant network has strengthened, as individuals from the splinter groups of Jemaah Islamiah and other radical organizations have formed an alliance.

Police said on Monday they shot a man involved in the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi province. More than 2,000 people died there in clashes between Christians and Muslims from 1998 to 2001.

"We have shot dead a wanted terrorist ... He was involved in the mutilation of three schoolgirls in Poso in 2005," said Aceh police chief of detectives, Esa Permadi, in a text message.

The man, Enal Tao alias Zaenal alias Ridwan, 38, had arranged for militants to travel to the Philippines for training in a militant camp, Permadi said.

Separately, a national police spokesman in Jakarta said one of the six men captured in Medan had been trained at a militant camp in the southern Philippines, while two others had been involved in the bomb attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2005. (Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sara Webb and Jerry Norton)