PHOTO: Body bag.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00599/Bomb385_599350a.jpg
#
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6788699.ece
August 9, 2009
“Elite squad guns down Bali bomb mastermind”
SNIPPET: “AN ELITE Indonesian police squad has killed a man believed to be the most wanted Islamic militant in southeast Asia, Noordin Mohammad Top, who was linked to bombings in Jakarta and on the island of Bali.
Officers of Detachment 88 stormed a house amid green rice paddies in central Java yesterday morning, using robot cameras to find their target as they blasted from room to room with grenades.
The man made a last stand inside the bathroom as walls shattered around him, screaming out the name, “Noordin Top”, before black-clad marksmen fired volleys of shots into the room, witnesses said.
It was the climax to a 17-hour siege that followed a swoop on militants in the town of Temanggung, 250 miles southeast of Jakarta.
After several exchanges of gunfire, there was a lull overnight. Shortly before 8am yesterday, heavy firing and explosions could be heard. It was almost two hours before the shooting stopped.
At least one body was seen by reporters being dragged from the house and placed in a makeshift coffin. Two more were put into body bags.
There appears to have been no effort to negotiate a surrender with the suspect. Top, who was 40, had vowed to go down fighting and had pledged that his death would be bloodily avenged.
A formal identification of Top’s body has yet to be made. Police said last night they would conduct a DNA test before confirming his identity.
If verified, his death would be a blow to a network of violent extremists that has wreaked havoc with suicide bombings across the world’s most populous Islamic nation.”
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/08/indonesian_police_ve.php
“Indonesian police “very confident” Noordin M. Top dead”
By NICK GRACEAugust 10, 2009 12:15 AM
SNIPPET: “Indonesian authorities are “very confident” that the man killed during a dramatic 17-hour standoff Saturday morning is wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammed Top.
“We had this person under surveillance for a week and followed him wherever he went,” a source inside the investigation told the daily Kompas. “We created a detailed profile on him. We knew where he went and what he ate. We even knew that he always slept in cemeteries.”
The source said Noordin shied away from cell phones but left an electronic trail on the Internet, which led them to his trusted courier: the nephew of the man whose home was at the center of the standoff, Indra Arif Hermawan , who is also known as Arif and Indra. “The courier that became Noordin’s communications lifeline was Arif. He was picked up before police descended on the house in Temanggung.”
Arif and his brother Aris Susanto, also known as Hendra, worked at a motorcycle repair shop in Temanggung and were already known to authorities. Their cousin, Tataq Lusiyanto, was detained in 2006 for involvement in the 2003 JW Marriott bombing. Tataq’s father, Mudjahri , owned the farm house and is also under suspicion of supporting the hardline Jemaah Islamiyah network.”
###
###
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/08/mystery_over_noordin.php
“Mystery over Noordin Mohammed Top thickens”
By NICK GRACE
August 9, 2009 9:40 AM
SNIPPET: “Noordin Mohammed Top, initially believed to have died during a spectacular shootout in Central Java, may have been captured alive. Indonesian authorities are interrogating a terror suspect arrested Friday night who a witness said looks like the Malaysian fugitive.
The suspect, Ahmad Fery, was detained Friday night during a raid on a safe house in the Jatiasih area of Bekasi, a Jakarta suburb, that authorities say disrupted planned major attacks and netted over 500 Kg of explosives.
A neighborhood official who had previously spoken with Fery told Detik News on Sunday that he closely resembles Noordin.
“If I were to compare him with what police have put on television, Ahmad Fery looks a lot like Noordin,” Sundoyo, the official, said. He described Fery as standing 165 cm tall, having short hair, white skin, and a clean mustache and beard. Authorities have not commented on the report.
Fery rented a house in the Puri Naspala neighborhood of Jatiasih, Bekasi, with Amir Abdullah, who is also known as Amir Ibrohim, a few weeks before the July 17 terror attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta. Both men are suspected of involvement in the attacks and are also believed to have been planning upcoming attacks during Indonesia’s independence day celebrations on August 17.
“Neighbors reported strange behavior,” Sundoyo said. “Someone saw Ahmad Fery enter the house regularly through the window.” When confronted, the neighbor said Fery claimed that he lost his keys. Neighbors also complained about constant noises during nights and the steady stream of strangers that visited the house. “It’s not clear who they were,” he said.
Police told Sundoyo that the identity card Fery showed to him when applying to rent the house is a forgery. The name “Ahmed Fery” is likely to be fake.”
