Indonesian Authorities Confirm Death of Leading Islamic Terrorist

Authorities in Indonesia have confirmed that one of four men killed during a raid on a house in the city of Solo, on the country's main island Java, was Noordin Mohammad Top, considered to be the leading Islamic terrorist in Southeast Asia.

As France 24 reports it was incorrectly announced in August that Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian, had been killed in a raid on a house elsewhere on Java. But on this occasion, says the Irish Times, a positive identification of Noordin's body has been made using his fingerprints, leading Indonesia's chief of police Gen Bambang Hendarso Danuri to declare that it is "100 per cent certain" the man thought to be the mastermind behind the July 17 suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is dead. Jemaah Islamiyah has long been considered the leading militant Islamic group in Southeast Asia. However Noordin, who had a price on his head of more than $100,000 and reportedly had managed to evade capture for nearly a decade, led a breakaway group named “Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago”. Other terrorist attacks blamed on Noordin and the members of his group include those on the Australian embassy in Indonesia in 2004 and on foreign tourists on the popular holiday island of Bali in 2005. Despite several major terrorist incidents in recent years the Irish Times notes that Indonesia, a country with the world's largest Muslim population, is generally regarded as having been successful in the fight against Islamic militants. In an attempt to "de-radicalize" the militants the Indonesian authorities have, for example, paid for the education and welfare of the children of those suspected of terrorist activities.

France 24 says that another of those killed during Thursday's raid by Indonesian police in Solo was Bagus Budi Pranoto, also known as Urwah. He, like Noordin, was suspected of involvement in the July attacks in Jakarta that killed nine people, including the two suicide bombers. Sidney Jones, a terrorism expert with the International Crisis Group, an organization which describes its mission as "Working to Prevent Conflict Worldwide" and has on its board a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has spoken of the significance of Noordin's death. Cautioning that the group led by Noordin, whose hatred of the West was said to be particularly strong, could still operate without him, she said:

It takes out of commission the person who most wanted to launch attacks on foreign targets. The number of people who have [similar] capacity to provide leadership of a splinter group who are sufficiently charismatic and educated is five or six