July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysian authorities are questioning supporters of Noordin Mohammad Top, a wanted terrorist allegedly linked to suicide bombings at two luxury hotels in Jakarta, as the probe extends beyond Indonesia.

Three associates of Malaysian-born Noordin were detained before the July 17 attacks and are being interviewed as part of the investigation, Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters near Kuala Lumpur today.

Malaysian intelligence officials are in the Indonesian capital to help with the investigation and are monitoring Noordin’s supporters, he said. “We are working very closely with Indonesian intelligence,” he added.

Noordin, 40, is an alleged leader of Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah and wanted over a six-year bombing campaign in Indonesia that left about 280 people dead. Indonesian police say the group is the likely perpetrator of last week’s attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels that killed nine people, including the two attackers.

An unexploded bomb defused in room 1808 of the Marriott was similar to explosive devices found earlier this year in Cilacap, Central Java, which were linked to Noordin, police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said last week.

The three people detained are Malaysian nationals and members of JI, Hishammuddin said, adding there is no firm evidence that Noordin coordinated last week’s bombings.

“It’s not just one person,” he said. “We are talking about an international network.”

Suspected Mastermind

Noordin is a suspected mastermind of an attack on the Indonesian island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, according to the Indonesian government.

Jemaah Islamiyah is also blamed for the 2003 bombing at the same Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12 people, a 2004 blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed at least nine, and another attack in Bali in 2005 when three suicide bombers killed themselves and 20 other people.

The group aims to form a pan-Asian state governed by Islamic law, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which aims to resolve conflicts.

Noordin has been “responsible for all the other major bombings in Jakarta and Bali since 2003,” Sidney Jones, a senior ICG adviser, said yesterday in an interview. He leads a JI splinter organization, and after the Bali attack in 2005 identified himself as the head of a group called al-Qaeda for Southeast Asia, Jones added.

Top Strategist

The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program refers to Noordin as one of the most dangerous members of JI, saying he is “believed to be a top recruiter, strategist and fundraiser.”

“He is a charismatic leader and a recruiter and has proven to be innovative and single-minded in his desire to implement the al-Qaeda line and target Western interests,” the department said on its Web site.

The near-simultaneous bombings on the hotels were the first terrorist attacks in Indonesia in almost four years. They came nine days after elections in which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second five-year term, partly on his perceived ability to contain terrorism.

Indonesia is a strong, stable democracy with “measures to bring terrorism under control,” said Jones, adding “radical cells” responsible for the attacks don’t represent majority public opinion in the world’s most populous Muslim nation of 248 million people.

“This will have no effect on the stability of Indonesia,” said Jones. “It’s not a crisis, no one should think that.”

Group Weakened

Yudhoyono, a 59-year-old former general, weakened JI by winning cooperation from captured terrorists, who convinced former comrades that the government doesn’t oppose their religion. The government also rewarded informants, including tuition aid for their children, relocation expenses and the privilege of forgoing uniforms in prison.

Indonesian authorities killed Azahari Husin, an alleged organizer of the 2002 Bali bombings, in November 2005. In 2007, police captured Abu Dujana, one of JI’s suspected leaders.

The three terrorists convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron, were executed by a firing squad in November last year.

The group’s alleged leader, Mas Salamat Kastari, was arrested in April in an operation by Malaysia’s Special Branch and Singapore’s Internal Security Department.

Terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said the group continues to pose a threat to Indonesia and said the government must take action against radical clerics, including Abu Bakar Bashir.

Bashir denies being JI’s spiritual head and his conviction for involvement in bombings was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2006. The cleric called for renewed jihad against the West in a video posted on the Internet June 14, according to Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based consulting firm that monitors terrorist incidents.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net; Manirajan Ramasamy in Kuala Lumpur at rmanirajan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 21, 2009 01:08 EDT