JI's leading bomber Noordin Top reported killed

Writer: AFP

Published: 8/08/2009 at 06:46 PM

Beji, Indonesia - Asian terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top was killed during a raid on his hideout by heavily armed counter-terrorism police in Indonesia on Saturday, Metro TV reported.

At least three people were believed to have been killed in the raid, according to an AFP reporter at the scene who saw two body bags being removed and a third body lying exposed outside the house in rural Central Java.

Elite police special forces were reportedly seen shaking hands and congratulating each other after they stormed the squat, single-storey abode on the edge of a vast rice paddy shortly before 10am (0300 GMT, 11am Singapore).

Police surrounded the house at 4pm on Friday after arresting two people at a nearby market who were reported to be relatives of the tenant of the property.

The property suffered extensive damage, with the windows and roof smashed, the front door blown away and bullet holes throughout.

The end of the operation came after the arrests of Noordin's alleged accomplices in Jakarta and the death of two men recruited to be suicide bombers for his network during a raid on a house outside the capital, police said.

The two would-be bombers, accused of involvement in the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta which killed 10 people, were shot dead by police as they prepared to throw home-made bombs during the raid early Saturday.

A man who booked the room used by bombers before they attacked the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17, killing seven people, was among three other Noordin accomplices arrested earlier, police said.

Malaysian Islamist Noordin is one of Asia's most-wanted terror suspects and is accused of multiple attacks in Indonesia since 2003 which have killed around 50 people, including last month's suicide blasts in Jakarta.

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