'The prints match' as mastermind of Jakarta bombs is declared dead

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 22:05

INDONESIA'S most wanted Islamist militant has been killed in a shoot-out in Central Java, police said yesterday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US president Barack Obama.

Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammad Top, 41, who set up a violent splinter group of regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah, was widely considered the mastermind of the bomb attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July, as well as other attacks in Jakarta and Bali, making him responsible for the deaths of scores of Westerners and Indonesians.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri announced Top's death at a news conference, triumphantly holding up photos to show the match between the dead militant's fingerprints and those on police file, as reporters and police in the room cheered.

He said police had also seized documents, laptops and weapons in the raid.

Local media, quoting police sources, had trumpeted Top's death last month during a police raid in Central Java, only to have forensic tests prove that wrong days later. But Danuri said there were 14 points of match between the fingerprints, and only 11 were required for a confirmation.

He said the militant was carrying a loaded Beretta pistol when found. Metro TV later showed the bearded and bloated face of Top emerging out a partly unzipped orange body bag.

Indonesia, south-east Asia's biggest economy and the world's most populous Muslim country, has been under intense pressure to capture or kill Top ahead of Mr Obama's visit in November.

"It's a huge blow for the extremist organisations in Indonesia and the region," said Sidney Jones, an expert on Islamic militants with the International Crisis Group.

"It's a major success for the police but it doesn't mean, unfortunately, that the problem of terrorism is over. It's still unclear how many people were in Noordin's group and there are a number of fugitives still at large who have at least the potential to replace him as the leader of an al-Qaeda-like organisation."

National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said three people had been captured in the overnight raid on a house near Solo.

"We also confiscated explosives, weapons and a grenade from the house," he said, adding later that eight sacks of explosives had been found.

Three other people killed in the raid included members of Top's inner circle, police and analysts said.

Police have been searching for several people believed to be behind the near-simultaneous attacks on the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels on 17 July in which nine people, including two suicide bombers, were killed and 53 wounded. The July bomb attacks in Jakarta ended a four-year lull in militant attacks in Indonesia.

Subsequent police investigations showed Top's militants had planned to assassinate Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at his home using a suicide lorry bomb.

The president said Top's death was a big boost for security.

"With the death of Noordin Mohammad Top and of Doctor Azahari (a Malaysian bomb maker and close ally of Top, killed in 2005], I believe we could reduce the seriousness of the terror threat to Indonesia," Mr Yudhoyono said.

Analysts said Top had been acting on his own since 2003, and had gained a near mythical status among some younger, more radical members of Jemaah Islamiah and other groups. He reportedly made a video on DIY bomb construction, which included lessons on how "martyrs" should perform their final ritual acts, including prayers and debt repayments, and how to create a video-will.

Top was born in Johor, southern Malaysia, and completed a bachelor of science at the University of Technology, Malaysia, in 1991. He worked briefly as an accountant before launching a career as a jihadist.

Top's disagreement with other Jemaah Islamiah members over the use of violence, even if they killed Indonesians, led him in 2003 to form a far more violent splinter group called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, or Organisation for the Base of Jihad.