NOORDIN MOHAMMED TOP, the man suspected of masterminding a series of terrorist attacks across Indonesia, including the Jakarta hotel bombings last month that killed three Australians, has been arrested, according to reports late last night.48 hour rule applies
Indonesian media were reporting a firefight, believed to be in Central Java, between Indonesian police and alleged terrorists about 4pm, Jakarta time yesterday. According to Al Jazeera, the shoot-out led to the arrest of Noordin, South-East Asia's most wanted man and a radical Islamist who has played a role in all the major terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2002, and masterminded the last four.
Today just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?
Local television quoted an unnamed police source saying a person in the house that was raided yesterday afternoon ''looked like'' Noordin, without confirming one way or another if it was the terrorist leader. The arrest could not be independently confirmed by an Indonesian police spokesman last night but Al Jazeera's Jakarta correspondent, Step Vaasen, quoted ''a very reliable source on the ground'' confirming that Noordin had been arrested.
Ms Vaasen has been a long-time and respected Jakarta reporter although the Qatar-based network has made false reports from Indonesia before, including the timing of the execution of the Bali bombers. Twin bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels on July 17 killed seven bystanders, as well as the two suicide bombers.
Noordin has evaded Indonesia's largest manhunt for more than six years and is widely considered to have orchestrated the attacks. A statement written under his name and posted on the internet claimed responsibility for the mass murders.
If the arrest is confirmed it will mark a coup for Indonesian police, who were coming under increasing pressure for their failure to make any key arrests or identify the suicide bombers involved in last month's attacks.
Noordin, a Malaysian university graduate, is a bomb-maker who deeply admires al-Qaeda, and may continue to have links with the organisation.
If not grabbed yet, maybe soon:
INDONESIAN police are engaged in an armed standoff with gunmen in a suspected hideout of alleged Asian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, a spokesman says. Shooting erupted after crack counter-terrorism police surrounded a house in rural Central Java as part of investigations into last month's twin suicide bombings on hotels in the capital Jakarta, he said. "There was shooting between the special detachment team and the people inside the house," spokesman Nanan Soekarna said. "This house was our target," he added.
The news network Al Jazeera, meanwhile, reported on its website that Top had been arrested and taken into custody. "Officially the police are still denying that they have captured Noordin Top in central Java, but a very reliable source on the ground have told us they captured a man very likely to be Noordin Top," Step Vaessen, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reported.
"How reliable?"
"Very"
The house siege began around 4pm yesterday (7pm AEST Friday) in Beji village, Temanggung regency and sporadic shooting could still be heard after midnight into the early hours of this morning. Up to four suspected Islamist militants were holed up in the squat, single level house, Soekarna said, without confirming media reports that police believed Noordin was among the occupants.
We're at the "You'll never take us alive part".
He said two people "connected to the group in the house" had been arrested, but gave no further details. "The police right now are still trying to besiege the house. We suspect that there are about three or four people inside," he said.
Bring up the siege guns