Free Republic

UNTIL the last minute of his life at 3.30pm last Wednesday, the logistics skills that the Bali bombing mastermind known as the “Demolition Man” had polished at Reading University did not desert him. As a team from Indonesia’s elite police unit, Detachment 88, crept into place around his hideaway, Azahari bin Husin, 48, was working with an accomplice on the explosive devices that had made his name. They had more than 30 small charges with intricate electronic settings, which police experts think were intended to detonate larger bombs. Computer disks, several mobile phones and jihadi tracts littered the main room...

Indonesia's most wanted man and the terrorist blamed for a string of attacks including the Bali bombings has reportedly blown himself up after police raided his East Java hideout this afternoon. Malaysian bomb mastermind Dr Azahari Husin apparently triggered a bomb killing himself and two accomplices after police surrounded a villa in the hill resort town of Batu, near Malang, local television news stations reported. An undated police handout photo shows Malaysian bombmaker Azahari Husin. Photo: Reuters Witnesses told of gunshots and at least two explosions after crack anti-terror police raided the house around 3.30pm this afternoon. The area was...

INDONESIA on Thursday confirmed that master bomb-maker and Islamic radical Azahari Husin, one of Asia's top terror suspects and most wanted men, was killed after a shootout with police. Azahari, a Malaysian from the al-Qaeda linked Jemaaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network who was known as the 'Demolition Man', was tracked down Wednesday at his remote hideway in Batu and reportedly blew himself up to avoid capture. Indonesia's national police chief said fingerprinting had confirmed that Azahari, known as a master of disguise, was killed during the stand-off in East Java. "There were two comparative (sets of fingerprints) and both are...

Jakarta: Malaysian terrorist and Bali bombing ringleader Azahari Husin is believed to have been killed during a shoot-out with Indonesian police. A senior member of an Indonesian anti-terror squad confirmed that two suspects were killed during a raid yesterday afternoon on a villa in the central Java town of Batu. The local police chief was quoted later as saying seven suspects were killed during the gun battle. The anti-terror squad member told The Age that one of the dead was thought to be Azahari. "One has the physical characteristics of Azahari. Now we are identifying him," he said. Azahari, along...

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,...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - One of southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorist suspects, accused of plotting a series of deadly bombings in Bali, was believed to have been killed Wednesday when an elite Indonesian anti-terrorism unit stormed a suspected militant hideout, police said. Azahari bin Husin, a Malaysian accused of leading an al-Qaida-linked group and masterminding at least four deadly blasts in Indonesia in recent years, either was shot to death or blew himself up to avoid capture, senior police official Gen. Gorries Mere told The Associated Press. Local TV stations reported that Azahari, who security officials have said always wore explosives around...

THE death of Malaysian bomb mastermind Azahari Husin will remove one of the brains behind terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah, the Australian government has said. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney General Philip Ruddock have welcomed reports the so-called "Demolition Man" who was behind both Bali attacks and the Jakarta Australian Embassy bombing has blown himself up after a shootout in Indonesia. "Noordin Top and Azahari have been the two keys to these bombings by what we broadly define as Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia, so to take either or both of them out is a very important step forward," Mr Downer...

The man accused of designing the bombs that rocked the tourist island of Bali last year and a Jakarta hotel last month, plans to strike again in the Indonesian capital, the country's police chief said. Azahari, a 46-year-old British-educated Malaysian engineer, accused by authorities in several countries of being the top bomb-maker for the militant South-East Asian Jemaah Islamiah network, is still on the run and one of the most wanted men in Asia. "The group is still planning bombings and terror in several places, particularly in Jakarta," General Da'i Bachtiar told reporters before a hearing in parliament. "We have...