Asia’s Most Wanted Noordin Mohammad Killed In Indonesia

JAKARTA: Noordin Mohammad Top, the Muslim militant who police say is the chief suspect in last month’s suicide bomb attacks on luxury hotels in Jakarta and other deadly attacks, is one of Asia’s most wanted men.

Indonesian police sources said on Saturday they believed the former accountant and maths teacher had been killed during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body.

Malaysian-born Noordin was once a key figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a militant group that aimed to create a caliphate across Southeast Asia, but analysts say he created his own more violent splinter group in 2003.

He is suspected of planning the bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005 — attacks designed to scare off foreign tourists and businesses.

Experts said the near-simultaneous attacks last month at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta’s main business district used explosives identical to those found in previous Jemaah Islamiah attacks.

The attacks came after a lull of four years during which Indonesia achieved political stability and strong economic growth after a decade of tumult following the ouster of former autocratic president Suharto.

Indonesia’s violent jihad seemed to have subsided. Noordin’s partner, the Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, was killed in 2005. Two Jemaah Islamiah militants were jailed in April 2008, and three Bali bombers were executed in November that year. Noordin himself had not been heard from in several years.

The July 17 attacks that killed nine people, including two suspected bombers, and injured scores, seemed to signal he had returned to the fray.

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