Malaysia captures 12 Islamist militants

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 (Reuters) Malaysian police have captured 12 Islamist militants, most of them from Indonesia, who are suspected to have planned terrorist attacks in the region, the Star newspaper said today.

The dozen men belonged to Indonesia's Darul Islam movement and were arrested recently after six months of police surveillance in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on Borneo island, the daily said. It did not say when the men had been picked up.

Police had seized firearms and documents from the men, including bomb-making instructions downloaded form the Internet, the paper said. The men, including at least two Malaysians, had been travelling through Sabah when police nabbed them, it added.

''However, it is not immediately known what the group's targets were or when its plans would be executed,'' the Star said.

Police were investigating if Darul Islam had links with the Abu Sayyaf militant Islamist group based in the southern Philippines, which borders Sabah, and with the al Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden, the newspaper said.

Darul Islam, which wants to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia, is seen by security experts as the well-spring of militant splinter groups like Jemaah Islamiah, which is suspected to have carried out a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia.

Reuters VJ VP0628