SE Asia's 'unprecedented threat'
From CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa
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Police are still searching for five men in connection with the bombing of a central Jakarta hotel.
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MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- Authorities are warning about the possibility of more attacks in Southeast Asia despite the arrest of a key terrorist last week.
"Southeast Asia faces unprecedented threat," al Qaeda expert Rohan Gunaratna says.
"In terms of attacks, we will not see an appreciable decline because Hambali had groomed and trained many others to succeed him in the event that he was captured."
Top al Qaeda operative Hambali was a key link between the group and its regional network, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). He was arrested last week in his apartment in Ayuttaya, Thailand.
Among those vying for his spot now is Afghan veteran Zulkarnaen, a suspect in the August 5 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
"Zulkarnaen is a man who has been in JI for a long period of time, and he is very close to Hambali as well as to many senior figures of al Qaeda," Gunaratna says.
Intelligence sources in the region say Zulkarnaen heads Laskar Khos, JI's special operations team and suicide brigade, now believed to be operating in Jakarta.
Other suspects in the Marriott blast, police say, were involved in the attack in Bali which killed more than 200 people last year.
Nine suspects arrested in connection with the Marriott attack have been named, but, along with Zulkarnaen, police are still hunting for four other men described as key planners. (Suspects named)
Among them, another Hambali deputy, Dr. Azahari Husin, who wrote JI's bomb-making manual, and Dulmatin, who is believed to have built the Bali bomb on Azahari's instructions.
Both men, intelligence sources say, are believed to be in Jakarta.
Azahari, an electronics expert, is suspected of building the Marriott car bomb as well as designing and supervising the construction of the main bomb used in the Bali blasts.
The threat level, experts warn, remains highest in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines where JI operatives remain active.
Despite recent arrests, sources say JI remains capable of carrying out attacks on the scale of Bali or worse.
