Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist killed in police raid

INDONESIA’S most wanted Islamist militant was killed in a police shoot-out in Central Java, police said yesterday, lifting a major security threat ahead of a planned visit by US President Barack Obama.

Malaysian-born Noordin Mohammad Top, who set up a violent splinter group of regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah, was widely considered the mastermind of the bomb attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta in July, as well as other attacks in Bali and in Jakarta which killed scores of Westerners and Indonesians. National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri announced Top’s death at a news conference, triumphantly holding up photos to show the match between Top’s fingerprints and those on police file, as reporters and police cheered.

He said police had also seized documents, laptops and weapons in the raid.