Indonesian police Thursday said S-E Asia’s most wanted terrorist, Noordin Muhammad Top was eliminated during a raid on a hide out in Central Java. ‘This time Noordin was the man we killed’, said chief of Indonesian national police Gen Bambang Hendarso Danuri. Last month (August) the Police had egg on their face when their claim that Noordin was killed in a commando action proved to be wrong. The terrorist managed to slip through the police cardon minutes before his hideout in Central Java was raided.
Giving details at a press conference in Jakarata, Gen Danuri said fingerprints from one of four men killed during the shootout matched those of Noordin. ‘In this holy month of Ramadan, the country of Indonesia has been blessed’.
When the police commandos raided a house in Solo, in Central Java, hours after receiving a tip, they had not known that Noordin was among the terrorist suspects there. About four hours into the assault, there was a large explosion from inside the house, possibly from a suicide bomb.
Sorting through the leveled house, the police found 440 pounds of explosives, an M-16 rifle, a laptop computer and documents. These documents revealed connections between Indonesian militant groups and Al Qaeda, General Danuri said.
He refused to comment on how Noordin and his associates had been killed.
Counter-terrorism experts called Noordin’s death a major victory for security forces; they are, however, clear that his death would not end extremism in the region.
Noordin became South-east Asia’s most-wanted terrorism suspect over the past decade. He became a symbol of violent jihad heading his own faction of Jemaah Islamiyah which believed that violence was a necessary means to achieve the Islamist goals.
