Terror mastermind Noordin Top killed in Indonesia

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-18 06:57

A skilled bombmaker, Noordin has been implicated in every major recent attack in Indonesia, including 2002 and 2005 suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners.

Jemaah Islamiyah, and later Noordin's more militant splinter group, are also blamed for attacks in Jakarta, including the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton suicide bombings in July, an earlier attack on the Marriott in 2003 and a bombing at the Australian Embassy in 2004.

With Thursday's raid, police have now killed seven militant suspects since the July 17 hotel bombs and are still hunting three fugitives. Terrorism experts said Noordin's removal from the radical scene will improve the country's security outlook.

"You can't say that the terrorism threat is over, but you can say that a major figure has been taken out of the picture," said Sidney Jones, a leading terrorism adviser to the International Crisis Group think tank. "The threat had probably been diminished with his death and the inspiration he gave to follow al-Qaida line is finished."

The Obama administration welcomed the operation as "a significant step forward for Indonesia in its battle with political extremists," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Asked about any US involvement, he said the US did not take part or provide intelligence that led to the raid.

Noordin, 41, formed his radical ideas in the early 1990s at a Malaysian boarding school headed by an Indonesian Muslim cleric, Abdullah Sungkar, who founded the regional Jemaah Islamiyah network. Noordin joined in 1998 after training in the southern Philippines.

He fled to Indonesia in 2002 amid a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Malaysia following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, leaving behind a wife and three young children. He rose to prominence following the Bali bombings, coordinated by his close associate Dr. Azahari bin Husin, who was killed in a raid in late 2005.

A disagreement over targeting civilians caused a split in Jemaah Islamiyah and Noordin formed a more violent faction, Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad, aimed at creating a common Muslim state in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Authorities in the Philippines, who are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the south, said Noordin's death was a welcome sign that terrorists cannot hide forever.

"It's a major accomplishment, it's a big blow to their leadership, to their capability to train new bombers," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, who leads assaults against al-Qaida-linked militants. "There are gains being made in the anti-terrrorism campaign in the region."

Noordin's death follows the killings of several key al-Qaida and Taliban figures, including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Meshud, who died in a CIA missile strike in August, and al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was killed Monday in a US commando raid in Somalia.

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