Terror mastermind said among 4 dead in Indonesia raid

KEPUH SARI, Indonesia — Armed Indonesian police stormed an Islamic militant hideout early Thursday in a raid strongly suspected to have left terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top dead, police said.

A decapitated corpse believed to be Noordin'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 percent (certain)."

Loud explosions and gunfire were heard as police raided the rented house at around 7:00 am (0000 GMT) 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.

"It's true that police took action against seven suspected members of a terrorist group," suspected of involvement in deadly July hotel bombings in Jakarta, Soekarna told reporters.

"Four were killed and one person at the scene, the woman, survived and is being treated at a hospital in Solo," Soekarna said.

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.

Asked earlier by AFP if Noordin was among those killed in the raid, Special Detachment 88 anti-terror squad chief Saud Usman Nastion said: "I don't know."

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.

Noordin, leads a JI offshoot labeled Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago and is suspected of being behind 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.

If officially confirmed by police, the death of Urwah and Maruto would constitute the loss of key members of Noordin's network, analyst Noor Huda Ismail said.

"Maruto is the guy who knows how to make bombs," said Ismail, who heads the Institute for International Peacebuilding.

"Urwah is the guy who knows recruitment. He is the guy who introduced Noordin to Mohammed Rais," he said, referring to an operative in the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

A neighbour, Amal, said the raided house had been rented by the dead man Susilo and his wife Putri Munaroh, who was six months pregnant.

"Susilo was a nice guy, he moved here six months ago," he said.

Noordin allegedly also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the Australian embassy bombing and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali.

Jemaah Islamiyah's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

Noordin's faction is estranged from JI's mainstream, which has rejected spectacular attacks. But analysts say he has been able to fall back on a network of sympathetic schools and families while continuing to recruit.