Paras Indonesia, April, 29 2006 @ 11:18 pm
Noordin Top Escapes Raid, 2 Terror Suspects Killed
By: Roy Tupai
Indonesia's most wanted terror suspect Noordin Mohammad Top escaped a police
raid on his Central Java hideout on Saturday (29/4/06), while two suspected terrorists
inside the house were killed during and another two were captured.
Noordin, a Malaysian national and member of regional terrorism network Jemaah
Islamiyah, is accused of involvement in a series of deadly bombings in Bali and
Jakarta. He is believed to be an expert in recruiting and training suicide bombers,
organizing funds and planning attacks.
Members of the police's Detachment 88 anti-terror squad at 3am surrounded Noordin's
hideout - a rented house lined by banana trees near a market and railway station in
Binangun village, Kretek subdistrict, Wonosobo district. At 6am, after police had
unsuccessfully ordered the occupants to surrender, local residents heard gunfire and
explosions from the cordoned off area, while a police helicopter hovered over the
house. During the shoot-out, which lasted about an hour, police used a bomb to blow
open a wooden door of the house.
"We attacked them but they were fighting against us using M-16s. So there were
exchanges of fire… But unfortunately Noordin Top was not there," National Police
spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam was quoted as saying by Reuters.
He strongly denied online media reports that suggested Noordin had somehow
managed to slip out of the house unnoticed. National Police chief General Sutanto
later visited the scene and confirmed that Noordin had fled before Detachment 88
arrived.
Noordin has frequently managed to narrowly evade capture since becoming the target
of a police manhunt after the August 5, 2003, bombing at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel
that killed 12 people.
On November 9, 2005, police killed Noordin's compatriot and senior Jemaah Islamiyah
bomb-maker, Azahari Husin, at a raid on his hideout in Batu, East Java. The following
day, Noordin escaped a few hours before police raided his house in the Central Java
capital of Semarang. Police found documents, ammunition and a videotaped message
from three suicide bombers who had killed themselves and 20 other people in Bali the
previous month.
Some terror experts say Noordin and Azahari had split from Jemaah Islamiyah's
central leadership and teamed up with Indonesian radicals to form a smaller and even
more radical group called Thoifah Muqatilah (translated variously as Fighting Force or
Combat Unit).
2 Killed, 2 Arrested
The two men shot dead during Saturday's raid were identified as Abdul Hadi alias
Bambang alias Bahrudin Saleh, and Jabir alias Mujabir alias Budi Angkoro. The two
men who surrendered were identified as Solahudin alias Supri, and Mustafirin. Police
later said Solahudin had been caught in Temanggung town. Police said all four men
were aides of Noordin and Azahari.
Jabir was a suspect in the September 9, 2004, bomb blast that killed 11 Indonesians
outside the Australian Embassy in Kuningan, South Jakarta. He was also the cousin
of senior Jemaah Islamiyah member Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who perpetrated
deadly terror attacks in Jakarta and Manila. Al-Ghozi was shot dead by security
forces in the Philippines in October 2003, three months after escaping from a Manila
jail, where he was serving a 17-year sentence for possession of more than a ton of
explosives. Police said Jabir had considerable experience in making bombs and
helped to assemble the one used in the embassy attack.
Hadi was Noordin's right-hand man and had been on the police's wanted list. He
served as a bomb-maker and also recruited new candidates for suicide bombings.
Some reports said Jabir and Hadi had been involved in a failed plot to assassinate
former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Mustafirin was a courier for Noordin and had also allegedly been involved in several
bombings.
Solahudin was described as a close confidant of Azahari and was involved in several
attacks, including at the Atrium Plaza in Senen, Central Jakarta, in August 2001; and
at the Santa Anna Church in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, on Christmas Eve 2000. No
one was killed in the two attacks, although 72 people were injured in the church blast.
Occupants Unable to Detonate Suicide Bombs
Footage of Saturday's shoot-out broadcast by commercial television network ANTV
showed black-clad members of Detachment 88 blowing open the door and later
dragging a shirtless man out of a window and bundling him into a police vehicle.
Witnesses said he was shot in the leg, bleeding from the head and handcuffed.
Police said the men had rented the house for over a month, posing as textile and
clothing vendors. Sutanto said police began monitoring the house after discovering it
was being used by Mustafirin and Jabir. "They were dangerous people because they
could recruit candidates for suicide bombings, and they could assemble and make
bombs," he was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
He said police found explosives, suicide-bomb vests, detonators, guns, bullets and
various documents in the house. He said the occupants had been unable to strap on
or detonate their suicide bombs because they were too busy trying to avoid the
police's gunfire, which had intensified after the door was blasted open. Police later
erected a 2-meter high plywood fence around the house to keep away curious locals,
while a bomb squad moved in to examine the explosives and suicide vests.
The bodies of Hadi and Jabir, placed in orange bodybags, were removed from the
house at 1.15pm and later taken by ambulance to a police hospital in Semarang. The
bodies arrived at the heavily guarded Bayangkara Hospital at 4.45pm for autopsies.
Solahudin and Mustafirin were taken to Central Java Police headquarters for
questioning. It is believed they will later be transferred to Jakarta for further
interrogation.
Police set up roadblocks around Binangun but failed to find any more terror suspects.
Sutanto said the hunt for Noordin was continuing "in other places" but declined to be
more specific.
Detikcom quoted residents of Binangun as saying the rented house was occupied by
only four men and no one knew their names. They said Solahudin was not one of the
residents but had often visited the house.
Sugiono (45), a night watchman for a bus company, said he often chatted with
Solahudin, who lived about 2 kilometers away in Krakal village. He said the terrorists
had rented their house from a woman named Maybecopula Murni. "Supri [Solahudin]
said the house was occupied by his four friends, who he said were clothing traders.
One of them had long hair, another had a beard. Supri admitted to having a wife and
four children who lived at Krakal village in Kedaung, Kretek. Every day Supri sold
roasted corn at Kretek Market," he said.
Sugiono said that during their conversations, Solahudin only over talked about work
and never discussed religion.
Family Receives Confirmation
Jabir's family in Mojorejo village, Kebonsari subdistrict, Madiun regency, East Java,
was initially unconvinced he had been killed an anti-terror raid. Madiun Police chief
Sauqi Ahmad later visited Jabir's parents, Rusman and Maslihatin, to inform them
their son was dead.
Detikcom quoted Jabir's uncle Zein as saying the family "accepted the reality". He
was unwilling to give details of Jabir's personal life. "Please ask the citizens around
here," he said. Locals said Jabir was the third of four children and had not been seen
in the village for the past two or three years.
Central Java Police chief Dody Sumantiawan said he could not release definite
personal details of Hadi and Jabir because the pair had used several aliases and
addresses.
President Congratulates Police
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is currently on a tour of the Middle East,
received news of the raid while in Kuwait. He congratulated Sutanto for eliminating four
terrorists and ordered police to intensify the hunt for Noordin without causing any
alarm to the public. "The pursuit of terrorist cells must carried out in a proportional,
professional and conscientious manner," he said.
Australian Reaction
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer welcomed the news of the raid.
He said members of the Australian Federal Police had provided assistance for the
raid, although none were in Wonosobo when the operation occurred.
Asked about Noordin's ability to often evade arrest, he said the terrorist had probably
been tipped off but played down speculation that Indonesian security forces might be
assisting him. Following is the transcript of Downer's press conference.
DOWNER: We've been very pleased to hear that the Indonesian police have mounted
a very successful attack on a terrorist cell and have succeeded in capturing, we think,
three terrorists and killing two others. And we warmly welcome the decisive action the
Indonesian Government has taken - the Indonesian police have taken. There has been
some Australian Federal Police background support and it just underlines the
importance of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia in the area of
counter-terrorism. But more importantly, it underlines the determination of the
Indonesian Government to deal with terrorists, so we're very pleased that this
operation has taken place and that they've had some degree of success.
QUESTION: Was this an intelligence sharing operation between Australia and the
Indonesian Government?
DOWNER: Well I'm not getting into obviously operational matters, it was
predominantly an Indonesian police operation, but they did get some support from the
Australian Federal Police.
QUESTION: Are you disappointed that Noordin Top was not apprehended?
DOWNER: Well it will be good to get him. That's going to be - that still remains a very
substantial priority. A large number of the key terrorist figures in Indonesia have been
tracked down and caught or killed, and this is another example of that, but Noordin
Top still hasn't been. And I hope that this particular operation will make it easier to
track him down.
QUESTION: Do you think that over the years he's escaped capture many times, and
sometimes eluding police by hours, that he's been a very lucky man or do you think
the security forces over there...
DOWNER: Probably been tipped off...
QUESTION: ...[indistinct] being compromised?
DOWNER: Well I think - I assume that there may have been some luck in it but I
assume that he manages to get away because he has a reasonable sort of a network
of intelligence and...
QUESTION: Which would [indistinct] the Indonesian security force?
DOWNER: I think that's unlikely - anything's possible but I have no knowledge of that,
I don't know that that is the case. And I think on the whole that would be pretty
unlikely. I would imagine it's his own people on the ground who have been able to tip
him off about police movements and so on.
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