Elusive Hambali learned from bin Laden

RIDUAN Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, is a 38-year-old Islamic scholar who was born in Indonesia's West Java province.

The region was a hotbed of Islamic militancy in the 1940s and 50s, and the home of a massive religious rebellion called Darul Islam (House of Islam) which was finally crushed by government troops in the early 1960s.

Intelligence officials claim he learned his deadly craft in Afghanistan where he worked with Osama bin Laden, dreaming of a day when an Islamic state would be declared across much of Southeast Asia.