Australia won't be intimidated by Indonesia terror threat, Foreign minister says

Australia will not be intimidated by a masked terrorist who threatened attacks against the United States, Britain and Australia in a video found in the hide-out of one of Asia's most wanted militants, Australia's foreign minister said Thursday. "As long as you keep your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslim people, you will feel our intimidation and our terror," the man said in the video, made public late Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday in his hometown of Adelaide he had just become aware of a report of the video message which apparently features top terror suspect Noordin Mohamad Top. "Noordin Top is the most wanted terrorist in Southeast Asia and no democratic country like Australia should be intimidated by a fanatic like Noordin Top," Downer told reporters.

"We have to make it perfectly clear that whatever these people do, whatever threats they make, we have got the strength and courage to stand up to that," he added.

Police believe the man, who was wearing a black mask and spoke with a Malaysian accent, may be Noordin, said to be a key leader of the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

He has been accused of direct involvement in at least four deadly bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 and 2005 suicide attacks on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, many of them foreign tourists.

The video was found along with several other recordings one week ago in a hide-out in central Java province that had been used by Noordin, who fled before officers arrived, police say, reports the AP. I.L.