Bali bomb mastermind believed killed by counter-terror forces

INDONESIAN counter-terrorism forces yesterday killed a man believed to have been one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings, during a raid in the capital Jakarta, police and reports said.

The man was among three people killed in two raids on the city's outskirts.

Police did not disclose the identity of the three, saying "a forensic examination was still being carried out".

But a police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one was believed to be Dulmatin, a leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group and an al-Qaeda-trained bomb-making specialist for whom Washington is offering a US$10-million bounty.

It is not the first report of Dulmatin's death. In 2008, Philippine military officials said they believed Dulmatin's body had been exhumed on the southern Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi.

The Indonesian security ministry's counter-terrorism chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said, "If it's true that it's him, we will be very grateful that the most wanted terrorist has been killed in Pamulang. It will be a big relief to us."

A spokesman for Dulmatin's family, sibling Azam Ba'afut, told Indonesia's Antara news agency yesterday that "we frequently receive the news of Dulmatin's death... But up until now the fact is still unclear.

"If he is really dead, we must accept it and ask that his body be buried in Pemalang," he added, referring to Dulmatin's hometown.

National police spokesman Edward Aritonang told a news conference that one of the three men was killed in a gunfight with counter-terrorism police at an Internet cafe in Pamulang city, west of the capital.

Witnesses saw a body bag being taken from the cafe into an ambulance following the gunfight.

In a later raid a few kilometres from the first incident, two other people on a motorcycle were shot dead, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Police confirmed that the operation was linked to a counter-terrorism raid in Aceh province in which a militant training facility was discovered. Sixteen suspects have been arrested so far and charged under counter-terrorism laws.

The operations come ahead of US President Barack Obama's planned visit to Indonesia later this month.

Believed to be 39 years old, Dulmatin is accused of helping JI plan and carry out the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island, most of them foreign tourists.

JI is a Southeast Asian extremist group inspired by al-Qaeda. Its reported goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into an Islamic state.

The group has carried out more than 50 bombings in Indonesia since April 1999, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, including the 2002 Bali bombings and attacks on the resort island in 2005 that killed 20.

The last such attack killed seven people and two suicide bombers in two luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.

Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, killed in September 2009, allegedly organised the attacks as part of his al-Qaeda-inspired "holy war" on the West.

The Philippine military said yesterday there was a possibility Dulmatin had returned to Indonesia after some years in the southern part of Mindanao island.AFP