Kedu, August 08: Indonesian police have shot dead a man suspected to be leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body, police sources said on Saturday.
Malaysian-born Top is a prime suspect in last month’s near simultaneous suicide attacks on Jakarta’s JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels which killed nine people and wounded 53.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if Top has been killed or captured it would be major coup for security forces and could help reduce the chance of further attacks.
Police have launched a series of raids since Friday and two police sources close to the investigation into the hotel attacks said a man suspected to be Top was killed during raids in Temanggung, over 250 miles southeast of Jakarta.
“He was shot dead,” one source said, adding that raids in the area had led police to a house in Bekasi, on the outskirts of the capital, where up to 500 kg of bombs had been found. A report claimed that a loud blast in Bekasi was heard from the cordoned-off area and police said they had killed two suspected militants.
“I think this is very significant. Hopefully the person in Temanggung is Noordin,” said national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna.
Intelligence officials say Top and fellow Malaysian Azahari Husin, a bomb-maker who was killed in a 2005 police raid, were leaders in the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002.
Top is believed to have planned previous bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.
‘Significant blow’
Security expert have said that tracking down Top was key to heading off further attacks.
“It is a significant blow to the group as its leader has been killed and its logistics have been hurt,” said Andi Wijayanto, a security expert at the University of Indonesia.
“However, the police have to remain vigilant over a possible regeneration of a new cell that could launch fresh attacks.”
Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamic militants at the International Crisis Group, estimated this week that Top’s network could number around 30 people.
On Friday, police had said two men who were believed to be Top’s bodyguards had been arrested in a workshop in a market in Temanggung and had led police to a house in the same area where there had been a shoot-out with suspected militants.
After an overnight standoff and sporadic exchanges of gunfire, explosions shook the house followed by shooting at the remote site surrounded by rice fields where a group of suspected militants were thought to be holed up.
–Agencies