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Oct 3, 2009 JAKARTA - A CLOSE aide of slain Malaysian terror leader Noordin Mohammed Top has handed himself in to Indonesian authorities, police said Saturday. National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said in a text message Aris Ma'ruf, 23, surrendered to police in the Central Java district of Temanggung late Friday after months on the run. 'After interrogation, he was brought to the Central Java police headquarters to be handed over to the Central Java head of Special Detachment 88,' he said, referring to Indonesia's crack US and Australia-backed anti-terror squad.

Indonesian authorities are celebrating the death of terrorist leader Noordin Mohammed Top, who was killed in a police raid in Java yesterday. Police have also found what they claim is evidence showing Top was Al Qaeda's leader in South-East Asia. But analysts say Indonesia's terrorist network could quickly recover from his death. Police were not specifically looking for Top when they swooped on a property in Solo in central Java, but after avoiding police for years, the infamous terrorist leader's luck had finally run out. Top was one of four men shot dead by the special anti-terrorist police detachment, 88,...

SOLO, Indonesia — 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, officials said. Three alleged terrorists also were captured. A counterterrorism official said the dead included alleged bomb-maker Bagus Budi Pranato. The captured militants included a pregnant woman who was being treated at a hospital, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said. Police tracked the seven suspects to the town of Solo in Central Java and besieged a village house on the outskirts overnight. The raid ended near daybreak when an explosion was...

SNIPPET: "Indonesian police confirmed that DNA tests proved that wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammed Top was not killed during last week's raid on a farmhouse in Java in Indonesia." SNIPPET: "DNA tests confirmed that the body of the person killed was that of another wanted terrorist named Amir Ibrohim. Ibrohim, who is also known as Amir Abdullah, worked as a contractor for the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels and is said to have aided in the July 17 attacks. He was reportedly seen on tape escorting one of the suicide bombers during the July 17 attacks. Ibrohim is also believed...

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....

RADICAL Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top, the man accused of a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia, is one of Asia's most-wanted and elusive militant leaders. But his long and bloody game of cat-and-mouse with Indonesia's US-trained elite counter-terrorism forces may have come to an end in a storm of gunfire during a raid on a suspected hideout in Central Java today. His death has been reported by local television but police would confirm only that they believed the 40-year-old former accountant was hiding in the house when it was besieged by security forces late yesterday. At least three people are...