Noordin Muhammed Top, a militant mastermind who eluded capture for nine years and terrorized Indonesia with a string of deadly al-Qaida-funded bombings, was killed during a raid in central Indonesia, the country's police chief said Thursday.Police hunting for suspects in Jakarta hotel bombings raided a hide-out in central Indonesia, sparking gunfire and an explosion Thursday that left four suspected militants dead, including Noordin, national police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. Three alleged terrorists also were captured.
Noordin's remains were found in the house on the outskirts of the town of Solo in central Java after the hours-long gunfight, he said.
Fingerprints of Noordin's stored on a police database matched those of the body, Danuri said. DNA tests have not yet been conducted.
"It is Noordin M. Top," he told a nationally televised news conference to loud cheers from the audience. Documents and laptop computers confiscated from the house prove that Noordin "is the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast Asia," he said.
Hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives, M-16 assault rifles, grenades and bombs were removed from the house as ambulances shuttled away the dead and injured.
"We asked Noordin M. Top to surrender, but they kept firing," Danuri said. "That is how he died ... he even had bullets in his pockets."
Noordin, a Malaysian citizen, fled to Indonesia in 2002 amid a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Malaysia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He was linked to bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005 that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners. ...