Posted on 11/09/2005 2:59:26 PM PST by naturalman1975
THE most feared terrorist in Asia, Azahari bin Husin, the man responsible for the two Bali bombings and an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, has blown himself up after being cornered by police in East Java.
Police said it appeared Azahari, Indonesia's most wanted man, had died during a police raid in the city of Malang yesterday afternoon.
Indonesia's elite anti-terror squad Detachment 88 tracked Azahari down after months of surveillance. It is understood one of the master bomb-maker's acolytes inadvertently led police to the hideout. Police have hunted the elusive Malaysian militant since the 2002 Bali blasts, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Azahari and his Malaysian colleague Noordin Mohammed Top have been among the most wanted men in Asia, with Australian Federal Police assisting the Indonesian police in tracking them down.
A senior police officer close to the Azahari investigation said last night several informants had confirmed the dead man was Azahari.
Indonesia's national deputy detective chief, General Gorries Mere, said police believed the dead man was Azahari. "We suspect it is him," he said.
However, the officer said it would be some time before his death was confirmed because his body could have been blown to pieces.
Two of his companions also appeared to have blown themselves up, possibly using backpack bombs similar to those used last month in the latest Bali attacks, which killed 23 people, including the three suicide bombers.
A journalist at the site told Indonesian television that he had seen the dismembered body of Azahari. "The body was in pieces but his face could still be recognised by two members of the anti-terrorist unit from Jakarta," he said. "He blew himself up together with the house."
Several other people were reportedly arrested.
Azahari, who went to school and university in Adelaide, was wanted in connection with a string of attacks on Western targets that killed hundreds of people. These included the two Bali attacks, the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003 and the bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year.
A senior leader of the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah, he and Top planned and implemented the embassy bombing, even watching his handiwork from the back of a motorcycle.
One of his acolytes, Rois, told police Azahari received the money for the embassy bombing directly from Osama bin Laden.
The bespectacled 48-year-old was JI's top explosives expert and a master of disguise. He joined JI in the late 1990s and garnered his explosives expertise at al-Qa'ida training camps in Afghanistan.
Indonesian police were close to catching him in late 2003 but he slipped through the dragnet unrecognised. Police waited too long out of fear the pair were wearing explosive bomb belts.
According to the state news service Antara and Indonesian media reports, plainclothes police yesterday surrounded a building in Flamboyan Street, in the suburb of Batu in Malang.
Half an hour after the first shots were fired, about 3.30pm, bystanders heard a large explosion, according to Andi Kartiono, a witness who had previously rented the house where the terrorists had been hiding.
Two more explosions were heard and the gunfire continued until 5.30pm, Mr Kartiono said.
"That house was rented for the last three months by three students who said they were doing their papers," he told local television reporters. "They were all in their twenties."
Police told of a pitched gun battle with up to seven militants holed up inside. Some police officers were wounded, he said.
"They threw bombs and opened fire at us, injuring one policeman," a local detective told the Kyodo news agency.
Detachment 88 police had entered the house and saw at last two bodies but retreated when they came across several unexploded bombs. A police bomb squad was called to disarm the explosives before the bodies were removed and identified. A Detachment 88 source said the raid was linked to the October 1 triple suicide bombing on three cafes in Kuta and Jimbaran in Bali, which killed 23 people, including four Australians. "It has a link," he said.
Last night, local press reported that Indonesia's national police chief, General Sutanto, was on his way to Malang, along with the East Java military commander, Major-General Samsul Mappareppa.
Good!
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Better get the DNA on that. Wouldn't be surprised if he blew up one of his "lab assistants" to cover his trail for awhile.
A "known" dead terrorist can probably wreak a lot of damage.
"Pay no attention to the bullet holes in his body . . . he fell down the stairs."
Hope he enjoys all those virgins
Cool.
I don't know where Allah gets'em all. We've sure sent a lot of jihadi's to him recently.
I think more jihadist islamist idiots should follow his lead.
Dick Durbin is deeply saddened.
Your post reminded me of a joke.
Two Muslim mothers are watching their sons play ball: Ah look at them, they blow up so fast.
Not a very funny joke, but true.
Don't worry - that is being done. The Australian Federal Police have a forensic team in Indonesia, and they will be backstopping the Indonesian Police forensic experts on this. They have the man's head - it survived the explosion relatively intact, and he has been visually identified from it. But it will be DNA tested, and biometrically assessed.
ping
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