A new report by an international conflict research group sheds new light on the shadowy Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah and divulges for the first time suspicion of rifts among leaders of the group.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a non-profit organisation, claimed that its analyses into JI revealed that a leadership crisis has emerged within the group thereby complicating the counter-terrorism effort in the region.

"A deep rift has emerged between Abu Bakar Bashir, the formal head of JI who is under arrest in a Jakarta hospital, and the younger JI leaders, mostly based in Malaysia, who find him insufficiently radical.

"While Bashir undoubtedly knows far more than he is willing to divulge about JI operations, he is unlikely to have been the mastermind of JI attacks, including the Bali bombings," said the Brussels-based ICG in a media release on the report.

In the aftermath of the Oct 12 Bali attack, Indonesian authorities arrested Abu Bakar on suspicion of involvement in a string of deadly bomb attacks in Indonesia and the Philippines. However, he has consistently denied any knowledge or involvement in the bombings.

Three-tier terror structure

The ICG said that its indepth study of earlier bombings in Indonesia had revealed several key findings about JI and its organisation structure.

"The chief strategists of JI appear to be protgs of the late Abdullah Sungkar, the co-founder with Abu Bakar of a religious boarding school in Central Java.

"They tend to be Indonesian nationals living in Malaysia and are often veterans of the anti-Soviet resistance or later fighting in Afghanistan," said the report.

In addition, the ICG identified two lower rungs of operation within the terror organisation's structure.

"A trusted second tier are assigned as field coordinators, who deliver money and explosives and choose local team leaders.

"The bottom rung, those who drive the cars, survey targets, deliver the bombs and most often risk arrest, injury or death, are selected shortly before the attack is scheduled. They are mostly young men from Muslim boarding schools or Islamic high schools," the report added.

Aside from Abu Bakar, another suspected JI mastermind is the fugitive Riduan Isamuddin alias Hambali, an Indonesian militant who is currently wanted by authorities in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia in connection with several terrorist attacks.

Abu Bakar and Hambali were both living in Malaysia during their exile from Indonesia between the mid-1980s to 1998.

With Abu Bakar now under arrest, Hambali is now believed to be the key leader of JI and its main contact with the al-Qaeda network.

The Aceh link

Meanwhile, ICG said the JI network may be far more extensive than previously imagined because of the group's involvement in communal conflicts in Indonesia's troubled spots such as Maluku and Aceh.

"Those conflicts not only served to give concrete meaning to the concept of jihad , a key element of JI's ideology but also provided easily accessible places where recruits could gain practical combat experience.

"As those conflicts have waned, the object of JI's wrath may have shifted from Indonesian Christians to Westerners seen as supporting the United States-led war on terrorism."

The research organisation also found a "curious link" between Acehnese close to the JI and Indonesian military intelligence stemming from both groups' opposition to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"This link needs to be explored more fully: it does not necessarily mean that military intelligence was working with JI but it does raise a question about the extent to which it knew or could have found out more about JI than it has acknowledged," said the ICG.

In a recent development, the GAM finally signed a peace deal with the Indonesian government last week ending a 26-year insurgency in the troubled province.

It is uncertain, however, how this new development is likely to affect the alleged relationship between JI-linked groups in Aceh and the Indonesian military, as suggested in the ICG report.