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Top terrorist escapes raid in Indonesia

One of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorists escaped capture when security forces launched a raid on his hideout early yesterday, sparking a gunbattle that left two militants dead, police said.

Noordin Top, regarded as a key leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, was not in the safe house when heavily armed police arrived before dawn, national police chief General Sutanto told reporters.

"Noordin M. Top was not found yet and we are still searching for him," he said in the capital, Jakarta, after visiting the scene of the operation.

Authorities started staking out the location in Binangun, a village in Central Java, three months ago, "but when they launched their raid at around 3am, he was gone," police spokesman Brigadier General Anton Bahrul Alam told el-Shinta radio.

Residents told el-Shinta they heard a fierce hour-long gun and grenade battle and that helicopters were flying overhead. Roads leading to the house were blocked off and ambulances kept on standby.

Black-clad anti-terror forces, hunkered behind shields, fired machine guns and grenades before moving in on a one-story building where the men were hiding. A single, barefooted suspect was led from the scene, his hands cuffed behind his back.

Sutanto said those killed were Abdul Hadi, also known as Bambang, and Jabir, alleged key players in several attacks in Indonesia in recent years which left dozens dead.

"The slain terrorists were the main perpetrators in several terrorist acts. They have bomb making capabilities," he said. "In the safe house we found handmade bombs and documents."

General Sutanto said Jabir assembled the bombs used in deadly attacks in Jakarta at the Australian Embassy in 2004 and the JW Marriott hotel in 2003. Abdul Hadi was a recruiter of suicide bombing candidates, he said.

Police arrested two suspects, identified only as Solahudin and Mustafirin, who took part in a failed attempt to attack a Jakarta shopping mall in 2001.

"Mustafirin told police that Noordin was not in the house, that he separated from him in the town of Temanggung in December," Sutanto said.

Abdul Hadi and Jabir, both alleged explosives experts, also are accused of participating in a failed assassination attempt against former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in 2003.

"Jabir, who was wanted for the Australian Embassy bombing and was hardcore, had been close to Noordin Top for years and apparently had been traveling with him," said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security consultant.

Conboy said Noordin and others would find it increasingly difficult to keep away from authorities, despite a substantial network of supporters who help shelter them, as the number of fugitives at large diminishes.

"They are running out of places to go. The only places they are going is the heart of radicalism, in Central Java and sometimes East Java," he said by phone from Jakarta.

Noordin Top allegedly was a close associate of the late Azahari bin Husin, an alleged leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah who was killed in an arrest attempt in November.

The Islamic militant group has been blamed for at least four suicide bombings targeting Western interests since 2002, the most recent on Bali island six months ago.

The attacks together killed more than 260 people.
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