Indonesia, September 17: Gunfire and an explosion killed four suspected militants and wounded a police officer Thursday when authorities raided an alleged hideout in central Indonesia while hunting for suspects in Jakarta hotel bombings, an official said.
The raid ended around daybreak when an explosion was detonated inside a besieged village house on the outskirts of the town of Solo, in Central Java, the anti-terror official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information to the media.
The blast is believed to have been a suicide bomb, he said, adding that a police officer also was shot during the 7-hour siege. His condition was unknown.
Among the four dead was a fugitive bomb maker, Bagus Budi Pranowo, also known as Urwah, who was wanted in connection with twin suicide blasts at luxury hotels in the capital, Jakarta, in July, the official said. A young couple who rented the house and had been teaching Islamic studies at local schools were also killed, he said.
Pranowo, 31, was released in March 2007 after serving a 3 1/2-year sentence for harboring terrorists. Experts say he was a close associate of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorism suspect, Muhammad Noordin Top. He also was closely linked to senior clerics in the Jemaah Islamiyah regional militant network and had been actively recruiting members to carry out fresh attacks.
Police cordoned off a neighborhood and cut power supplies late Wednesday night in the suburb of Solo, a stronghold for hardline Islamist groups. Gunfire was heard throughout the night, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said.
An explosion went off around daybreak Thursday and four ambulances later drove away carrying at least two bodies in orange bags, the reporter said.
Police had confirmed a special forces operation was unfolding, but declined to give details.
“I ran out of my house in fear when I heard the gunfire,” said Widjan, a neighbor, who like many Indonesian goes by one name.
The besieged property was rented several months ago by the couple, identified by the anonymous official as Adit Susilo and Putri Munawaroh. They were working at an Islamic boarding school, neighborhood chief Suratim said.
The raid comes as police continue a massive manhunt for perpetrators of attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17. The blasts killed seven people and wounded more than 50, ending nearly four years without terrorist strikes in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
Several suspects have been detained or gunned down in raids in recent weeks, but alleged terrorist mastermind Noordin remains at large. Police are also still searching for several militant operatives believed to have planned the operation and recruited the bombers.
Noordin allegedly leads a breakaway group of the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah, which carried out a string of bombings in Indonesia in recent years with the support of al-Qaida.
Terrorist attacks have killed 250 people in Indonesia since 2002, most of them in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that left more than 200 people dead, most of them foreign tourists.
–Agencies