Police have charged 14 people suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province, a spokesman said Thursday, according to dpa. The suspects were arrested from February 20 to 24 in the Aceh Besar district in an operation that left two civilians and a suspected militant dead, national police spokesman Edward Aritonang said. "Based on a preliminary investigation, the suspects conducted semi-military training ... as a preparation to conduct terrorist acts," Aritonang told reporters. Police seized four rifles, bullets, a grenade and military paraphernalia from the suspects, he said. Aceh was the scene of a bloody separatist insurgency until a peace pact was signed between the rebels and the Jakarta government in 2005. The pact followed the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which left about 170,000 people dead in the staunchly Muslim province. Indonesia has been hit by a spate of bombings blamed on Islamic militants since 2000, but police said they were still investigating if those arrested in Aceh were linked to those attacks.
