Operation Alpha 29
Operation Alpha 29 was a military operation launched by Team Alfa 29 from the 515th Raider Infantry Battalion Kostrad of the Indonesian Army on 18 July 2016 in Tambarana, Poso Regency, Central Sulawesi. This operation was carried out to capture, paralyze, or kill Santoso, the leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen.
Background
Preparation
Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces General Gatot Nurmantyo revealed that soldiers from the 515th Raider Infantry Battalion had departed 13 days prior to the operation to hunt down Santoso's group. It took them three days to cover about 11 kilometers to Santoso's hideout, while it took them eight days to get to the ambush point.Team Alfa 29 was a closing team stationed along routes that were suspected to be the place where members of the Santoso group could escape from the Tinombala Task Force. This team backed up the previous team and focused on being tasked with hunting down Santoso in three areas.
The two teams that previously carried out hunting operations forced Santoso and his group to split up and kept trying to find a new, safer place. While trying to find a safe place from the police, Santoso and his group were finally detected by the closing team or Team Alfa 29.
Ambush
On 18 July 2016, while carrying out a patrol in the mountains of Tambarana Village, they found a hut and saw several unknown people picking up vegetables and sweet potatoes to cover their tracks. The attack on the Santoso group was carried out at around 16:00 WITA by members of the task force codenamed Alfa 29 which consisted of nine soldiers from 515th Raider Infantry Battalion.They also found traces in the river and saw three people next to the river but immediately disappeared. The task force team then tried to approach the unknown people in silence. After being within about 30 meters, they then engaged in gunfire for about 30 minutes. Gunfire took place in the mountains around Tambarana Village, Poso Pesisir Utara District, around 17.00 WITA.
Death of Santoso
After conducting a search after the firefight, two bodies and an M16 rifle were found. While the other three people managed to escape.Basri, who was initially thought to have died, managed to escape. Head of the Operation Tinombala Task Force Police Grand Commissioner Leo Bona Lubis revealed that Santoso was certain to die from the results of external physical identification and from the testimonies of witnesses.
The two bodies, namely Santoso and Mukhtar, were then evacuated on the morning of 19 July 2016 to the Tambarana Police Station, Poso Pesisir Utara District. Only a few minutes at the Tambarana Police Station, then the bodies of the two fugitives in the terrorism case were flown by a helicopter to Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie Airport in Palu. Due to the success of the operation, all officers involved in the Tinombala Task Force will receive an extraordinary promotion.