JAKARTA - INDONESIAN security forces stormed airports, five-star hotels, passenger ships and the stock exchange building yesterday in a massive anti-terrorism drill ordered in the wake of last month's militant rampage in Mumbai.
Nearly 7,000 soldiers and police officers took part, dropping from helicopters onto the roofs of buildings and staging mock battles with masked hostage takers in six locations, including the capital Jakarta, and on the resort island of Bali.
Yesterday's exercise was the biggest part of a series of drills launched this week.
Indonesia has been hit by a string of deadly suicide bombings targeting Westerners since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
But experts say the arrest of hundreds of suspects has sharply diminished the terror threat in the world's most populous Muslim- majority nation.
The drill was also held as the government ramped up security at churches and other public places ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said that last month's militant rampage in the Indian city of Mumbai that left 164 dead highlighted the need to remain alert, and called on security forces to ready themselves.
Indonesian television broadcast live footage of black-clad counter- terrorism forces dropping by helicopter onto the glitzy Borobudur Hotel in Jakarta. They then blasted through windows to release screaming hostages, leaving a trail of shattered glass.
In another scenario at a local airport, mock terrorists seized an aircraft carrying the president, killing the pilot and dumping the body onto the tarmac. After a 90-minute standoff, security forces overpowered the ransom-demanding militants.
Similar drills were held on Bali, which suffered suicide bombings in 2002 and 2005 that killed more than 220 people, many of them foreign tourists.
Security forces also stormed a ship in the Strait of Malacca, among the world's busiest shipping lanes, in a bid to free hundreds of passengers seized in another mock raid.
Top security minister Widodo Adi Sucipto said that following the drills Indonesia will revise its anti-terror security measures to improve its capacity to tackle possible attacks.
'We will for sure make some evaluations based on this week's exercises; what needs to be improved in order to have a more effective mechanism and entity in tackling terror attacks,' the minister told reporters after witnessing the drill.
Mr Widodo said such drills would now be held annually. 'The important thing we have to underline is the coordination and cooperation between the police and armed forces,' he said.
Members and associates of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah have been blamed for all of the recent suicide bombings in Indonesia, as well as a number of failed terrorism plots in South-east Asia.
The group had ties with Al-Qaeda and other foreign extremists before 2002, but most experts believe the links have since been broken.
The last major attack in Indonesia occurred three years ago.
