KEDU, Indonesia: Indonesian police shot dead a man suspected to be leading extremist Noordin Mohammad Top after an 18-hour siege in Central Java and planned to confirm his identity using DNA tests, police said Saturday. Police in a separate raid foiled a plot to attack Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s residence outside the capital, Jakarta, with a car bomb, officials said.
Malaysian-born Top is a prime suspect in last month’s near simultaneous suicide attacks on Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels which killed nine people and wounded 53.
Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if Top has been killed or captured it would be a major coup for security forces and could reduce the chance of further attacks.
Police planned to seek a DNA sample from the family of Top to confirm his death after a shoot-out in Central Java, national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a news conference.
“We welcome if the family, the wife wants to see the face. If this is Noordin Top then please let us check the DNA. If this is done then we can say who this is,” he said.
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 in Temanggung, over 400 km 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 Reuters correspondent in Bekasi heard a loud blast 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.
The militants were planning a suicide car bomb attack on the residence of President Yudhoyono in Bogor near Jakarta, the police chief said. He added that the militants planned to use a minibus packed with explosives to target Yudhoyono, after holding him responsible for the execution of the Bali bombers last year.
Top, 40, and fellow Malaysian Azahari Husin were leaders in the Jemaah Islamiah network, blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002.
