JAKARTA: Indonesia’s most-wanted militant, Noordin Mohammad Top, was killed in a police shootout in Central Java, police said on Thursday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US President Barack Obama.
Malaysian-born Top, who set up a violent splinter group of regional militant network Jemaah Islamiyah, was widely considered the mastermind of the bomb attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July, as well as other attacks in Bali and in Jakarta, which have killed scores of Westerners and Indonesians.
National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri, when asked if it was true that Top had been killed, told reporters: “Yes, yes yes.” The police chief had just held a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
A smiling Danuri later announced Top’s death at a news conference, triumphantly holding up photos to show the match between Top’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 that there were 14 points of match between the fingerprints, while only 11 were required for a confirmation.
“It’s a huge blow for the extremist organizations in Indonesia and the region,” said Sidney Jones, an expert on militants with the International Crisis Group.
National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said three people had been captured in the overnight raid on a house near Solo, including the wife of the man renting the house.
