Noordin Mat Top believed to be in shootout with Indonesian police

JAKARTA, Aug 8 - Police from Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit exchanged gun fire on Friday with suspected militants in Central Java on Friday after a raid targeting the perpetrators behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month.

Police believe the prime suspect behind the near simultaneous suicide attacks on two luxury Jakarta hotels last month, Malaysian-born militant Noordin Mohammad Top, was among those holed up at the house.

"Hopefully it's Noordin's group because they are our main target," national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said.
A source at Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 told Reuters the raid on the remote house in rice fields had
started at about 5 p.m (1000 GMT) and was still going on, with sporadic exchanges of automatic weapons.

The online news site detik.com quoted an intelligence source as saying Top was shot dead but that needed to be confirmed
through a DNA sample. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed nine and wounded 53, including Indonesians and foreigners, and broke a four-year lull when there had been no major attacks after police had arrested hundreds of militants.

The Detachment 88 source said police did not know how many suspects were in the house in Kedu village near Temanggung, Central Java, and were not entering because of concerns it was booby-trapped with explosives.

"Yes, it's possible it's him and his men," the source said when asked whether it was likely that Top was in the house.

TV footage showed the house lit up by bright search lamps and Metro TV said police had sealed off an area of about one square kilometre around the house.

Metro said two men had been arrested in a workshop before police raided the house belonging to a teacher in a Muslim
school.

Soekarna said he could not immediately confirm any arrests.

Police have been focusing much of their search on Central Java, where Top is believed to have a network of sympathisers to help shelter him.

Top is believed to have planned previous 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 so that JI could create a caliphate across Southeast Asia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if it is confirmed that Top has been captured it would be major coup for security forces and could help reduce the chance of further attacks.

Top, a key recruiter, strategist and financier for JI, has been on the run for years, eluding capture on several occasions.

Police put it down to Top's reluctance to use easily-tracked mobile phones and his reliance on a close network of sympathisers who guard his whereabouts and act as his couriers when he needs to send messages to his cells.

Top was a close ally of Azahari Husin, a Malaysian bomb-maker, who was killed during a police raid in 2005 in East Java. He is thought to have escaped a raid in Central Java in 2006 when two other alleged militants were killed.

Analysts said Top has been acting on his own since 2003, and has gained a near mythical status among some younger, more radical members of JI and other groups. - Reuters