Luxury Hotel Bomb Mastermind 'Shot Dead'

4:19am UK, Saturday August 08, 2009

The mastermind behind two deadly suicide bombs attacks on luxury tourist hotels in Jakarta has been shot dead, police sources say.

Anti-terror police outside the house in Temanggung district

Indonesian police say they have killed the country's most wanted man - leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top.

The death claims - which have not been confirmed - follow ongoing raids in Central Java.

Police have surrounded a remote house in rice fields in Temanggung where three to four suspected militants were thought to be holed up.

After an overnight standoff and sporadic exchanges of gunfire, shots and explosions could be heard.

TV footage showed heavily armed black-clad police from the anti-terrorism unit creeping towards the house, some sheltering behind shields.

Suspect Noordin Top

Local TV network TVOne quoted an unnamed police source as saying that Top may still be in the house after being shot and wounded.

Separately, police said they had killed two suspected militants and found up to 500kg of bombs during a raid on a house in the Bekasi area near the capital Jakarta.

It is believed they may have thwarted a major car bombing campaign.

Malaysian-born Top is the prime suspect for the near simultaneous suicide attacks on two luxury Jakarta hotels on July 17.

The attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed nine and wounded 53, including Indonesians and foreigners, and broke a four-year lull.

A police source close to the investigation into the hotel attacks told Reuters the man suspected to be Top was killed during the Temanggung raid.

"He was shot dead," the source said, adding that raids in the area had led police to the house in Bekasi, just east of the capital, where bombs had been found.