Naila Firdausi and Achmad Sukarsono – The reported deaths of Noordin Mohammad Top, suspected of masterminding a series of bombings in Indonesia, and two of his associates may reduce risk of future attacks in the Southeast Asian nation, analysts said.
Anti-terror police yesterday killed a militant thought to be Noordin in a house 360 kilometers (224 miles) east of Jakarta, local television channels including TVOne reported. National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said it may take a week to positively identify the dead, adding that two terrorists were killed near Jakarta, while five have been arrested in various places on the island of Java. The bomb attack plots included President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's residence, Danuri said.
"There are radicals out there that are determined to create violent jihad, but the loss of such an important figure in such an effective way will work to deter others from launching attacks," Keith Loveard, a security analyst at Jakarta-based Concord Consulting, said in a telephone interview.
The police raids that began Aug. 6 may help Yudhoyono, who was re-elected last month, keep his pledge of ensuring security in Asia's third-most populated nation. Noordin's arrest or death may "significantly" reduce the risk of future attacks, said Sidney Jones, a security analyst at the International Crisis Group.
"Without Noordin Top, the group will become disoriented and lose focus for the moment," A.M. Hendropriyono, Indonesia's former intelligence chief, said in an interview with Metro TV. "Group members will be suspicious of each other as they wonder who leaked information to the police."
Bakasi raid
Noordin, a former member of a terror organization linked to al-Qaeda, is suspected to have been involved in the July 17 suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta.
Indonesian police also raided a house in Bekasi, 20 kilometers east of Jakarta, thought to have been a safe-house for Noordin, Danuri said. Terrorists used the house to assemble bombs, he said. Two militants were killed in the raid.
Authorities discovered "hundreds of kilograms" of material to be used to make bombs similar to the explosive device found at the Marriott last month, a pick-up truck to be used as a car bomb and bullets, police said.
Highest leader
"If we did not unravel this, in two weeks our highest leader would have been a target," Danuri said at a briefing in Jakarta yesterday. The police have also arrested five people in the past month, including a guest in room 1808 of the Marriott, where the police found and defused an unexploded bomb, he said.
The Malaysia-born Noordin is suspected to have been involved in attacks that killed about 290 people since 2000, including 202 people in Bali seven years ago.
He allegedly was involved in a 2003 bombing at the same Marriott hotel that killed 12 people and a 2004 blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed at least nine, and another attack in Bali in 2005 when three suicide bombers killed themselves and 20 others.
"His group may be weakened but not exactly paralyzed," Dudon Satyaputra, former head of police forensics, said in an interview yesterday. "He has recruited many cadres" and they need to be captured, he said.
Some doubt
Some analysts expressed doubt the man killed in Temanggung, Central Java during a raid yesterday was Noordin.
DNA tests show the body recovered from the house in Temanggung was not that of Noordin Top, Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, was cited as saying by Aljazeera on the news agency's Web site.
Gunaratna was not immediately available for comment, while Eddy Saparwoko, chief of the Indonesian police's victim identification unit, didn't respond to calls and text messages to his mobile phone.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation added Noordin's name to its "Seeking Terrorism Information" list in 2006.
Noordin split from Jemaah Islamiyah and formed a group to carry on attacks after leaders of the Southeast Asian terror organization were caught or killed by Indonesian counter-terror agency Detachment 88. Authorities in 2005 killed Azhari Husin, Noordin's accomplice. Noordin escaped during that raid.
"The terrorists are practically on the run," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said in an interview on July 24. "Many of their leaders and members are held in prisons. Their organizational structure and setup are no longer like they used to be in early 2000s."
Abu Dujana, one of Jemaah Islamiyah's suspected leaders, was arrested in 2007. The three terrorists convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings, Amrozi, Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron, were executed by a firing squad in November last year. Riduan bin Isomuddin, also known as Hambali, the suspected leader of al- Qaeda in Southeast Asia was captured in Thailand in 2003.
Noordin planned the attack on Yudhoyono in April to avenge the death of the three bombers executed last year, Danuri said.
Attempts by authorities to break up the terrorism network in part helped Yudhoyono keep Indonesia free of terror attacks for the past four years and boosted the president's popularity. Yudhoyono won 60.8 percent of the votes in July 8 elections.