JAKARTA: Indonesian police said on Friday they had captured the head of Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for some of the deadliest terror attacks in the region.

They said Zarkasi had been heading the militant Muslim outfit since 2004 and that he had been seized in raids last weekend which also netted the alleged head of a JI special forces unit.

The capture of Zarkasi, who is also known as Mbah which means grandfather in Javanese, is a further blow to JI, an Al Qaeda-linked organisation that aims to create a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia through violent jihad.

“Zarkasi controlled JI operations across the whole of Indonesia,” said Surya Dharma, head of the country's anti-terror unit, Detachment 88.—AFP