Noordin Top believed among four dead after raid

AFP

Last Updated: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:24:00 +1000

Armed Indonesian police stormed an Islamic militant hideout early Thursday in a raid strongly suspected to have left terrorism mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top dead.

A decapitated corpse believed to be the militant's was among four bodies recovered after the early morning raid on a village house in Central Java, an officer of the elite Special Detachment 88 anti-terror squad told AFP.

Asked if one of the suspected dead militants was believed to be Noordin, the officer said on condition of anonymity: "Yes, it's 90 per cent (certain)."

Loud explosions and gunfire were heard as police raided the rented house after a nine-hour siege on the outskirts of Solo city, a stronghold in Central Java of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) radical network.

Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna refused to say who was suspected to have been killed but said the bodies were being sent to the capital Jakarta for identification.

Police found a cache of grenades in the house as well as eight sacks of explosives, he said.

Two other suspects were arrested before the raid including a suspected militant identified as Rohmat, he said.

Wanted man

A police intelligence officer at the site of the raid said those killed included the renter of the home, Susilo, close Noordin associate Bagus Budi Pranoto, alias Urwah, and suspected bomb-maker Maruto.

Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian who is Southeast Asia's most-wanted man, leads a radical splinter faction of JI blamed for a string of deadly attacks, including the July 17 suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

The bombings, which killed seven people including six foreigners, were the first major attacks in Indonesia in nearly four years.

Police believe they narrowly missed Noordin in a dramatic televised raid in August on a safehouse in Temanggung, Central Java.

Noordin was initially reported dead at the end of the 17-hour siege but the body later turned out to be that of a florist working in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex who helped plot the attacks from the inside.

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