
(/ABC News/AP Photo)
The group's second-in-command was recaptured last year after escaping from a prison in Singapore.
"The lesson here is that unless you take out all of the leadership, a group like this will continue to operate," said Clarke. "Every root and branch has to be taken out for the group to be truly dismantled."
Indonesian, U.S. and Australian authorities are now focusing on the group's remaining leader, Noordin Top, who is considered a charismatic recruiter, financier and bomb maker. He was reportedly trained in explosive at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.