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Indonesian militant Dulmatin - Source: Reuters -
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Indonesian police believe they have shot dead a top fugitive
militant, wanted over the 2002 Bali bombings, in what could be a
major coup in the country's fight against Islamist radicals, police
and analysts said.
Police sources said two raids in Pamulang, in Banten province, were
linked to a series of assaults on suspected Islamist militants in
Aceh province and had been targeting Dulmatin, a fugitive member of
militant group Jemaah Islamiah.
The raids on the southern outskirts of Jakarta come ahead of a
visit by US President Barack Obama to the world's most populous
Muslim nation on March 20-22.
National Police spokesman Edward Aritonang said the dead suspect in
the first raid was thought to be linked with terrorist incidents
that police were investigating, but police were identifying the
body and this could take up to two days.
A police source involved in the operation, who declined to be
identified, told Reuters they strongly suspect it was
Dulmatin.
Sidney Jones, an expert on Islamist militants at the International
Crisis Group think tank, said in a telephone text message: "It
looks 99% certain it's him."
Aritonang said the dead man had fired at police and a revolver was
found with five bullets still inside and 13 spares.
Metro TV showed footage it said was the face of the dead man, with
short hair and a wispy beard.
It also displayed an earlier photograph of Dulmatin from an
identity document as a comparison.
The dead man was later carried in an orange body bag to an
ambulance after the raid on a two-storey building that housed a
small Internet and copying business at street level.
Police said a second raid was conducted nearby about an hour later,
targeting members of the same group.
Two suspects were shot and two detained.
TV footage showed a dead man, wearing a black top, trousers and
sandals, slumped on the ground.
Nearby, a motorbike was lying on its side that police said the
suspects had tried to flee on.
A Reuters photographer at the scene saw two body bags being
carried away by police.
$US10 million bounty
Indonesian Dulmatin, an electronics specialist who also trained in
Afghanistan, is wanted over the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202
people and was believed to have been hiding in the southern
Philippines.
The United States had offered a $US10 million reward for
information on Dulmatin, who is said to have been wounded after
escaping a raid by Philippine security forces in 2006.
Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has launched
raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant
Islamist training camp in Aceh last month.
Books on jihad, rifles and military uniforms were found during
those raids, in which 19 suspected members of the group were
detained in Aceh and Java.
Two other suspects and three police have been killed during the
hunt for more suspects.
Dulmatin was thought to be working with the Abu Sayyaf group in the
Philippines, said Noor Huda Ismail, an Indonesian expert on radical
Islamist groups.
"It would be a major blow for the violent movement in Indonesia if
it was Dulmatin. However, it would also send a disturbing signal to
us that there are many terrorists who manage to enter Indonesia
from abroad," Ismail said.
Ismail said Dulmatin had the capability to succeed Noordin Mohammad
Top, a Malaysian-born militant and bomb maker killed by police last
year during a raid in central Java.
Top, who is believed to have set up a violent splinter group of
Jemaah Islamiah, masterminded a series of bombings including
suicide attacks on luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.
Police had initially thought they had killed the elusive Top last
August but forensic tests proved that wrong and he was finally
killed a month later.
Mardigu Wowi Prasantyo, another expert on militants in Indonesia,
said Dulmatin had expertise in bombings, sniper attacks and
guerrilla fighting.
Indonesia has been dealing with militant attacks for the past
decade from groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, some of whose members
trained in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the southern
Philippines.
A Saudi man and an Indonesian are on trial in Indonesia in
connection with the hotel bombings in Jakarta last year that killed
11 people, including the suicide bombers.
Police have said the hotel bombings pointed to the re-establishment
of a link between al Qaeda and local militants.
Al Qaeda helped fund the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2003 JW
Marriott hotel bombings in Jakarta, which killed scores of
Indonesians and Westerners, police say.
