Jakarta, Aug 9 (DPA) Indonesian police were trying to determine Sunday whether a man killed in a dramatic raid in Central Java was in fact one of Asia’s most wanted terror suspects as reported earlier.
Local television and media reported Saturday that Noordin Top was killed in a fierce firefight with anti-terror police squad at a house in Beji village of Temanggung.
However, terrorism experts expressed doubts that the lone man killed in the raid was Noordin, saying pictures circulating hours after the raid did not resemble police photographs previously published of the Malaysian-born terrorist.
“He’s not yet dead, in fact DNA tests prove that the body that was recovered was not of Noordin Mohammed Top,” Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the Singapore-based Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera television.
Gunaratna cited sources within the investigation.
Police believe Malaysian-born Noordin masterminded the July 17 bomb attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed nine people including two suicide bombers.
Identification efforts were under way at the national police hospital in Jakarta on the body of the man flown Saturday afternoon from Temanggung district, state-run Antara news agency reported.
National police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a press conference that he was still unable to confirm whether the man killed was indeed Noordin until DNA tests were completed.
Danuri said police would compare the DNA with samples taken from Noordin’s family in Malaysia.
Elite Detachment 88 anti-terror police besieged a house in a remote village in Central Java district of Temanggung for 18 hours. Local media reported the lone man had yelled to police that he was Noordin.
The siege followed the arrests of two men at a marketplace in Temanggung who are believed to have told police Top was at their uncle’s house.
Live television footage of the raid showed explosive-detection robots equipped with cameras entering the house and several explosions were heard. The suspect was found dead in bathroom.
