M'sian terror suspect Noordin killed: Indonesian TV

Alleged Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top was reportedly killed today in a hail of gunfire at his Indonesian hideout after a 17-hour siege by police special forces.

Local television station Metro TV said he had been killed in the operation but police have not confirmed the report, saying only they believed he was one of around four occupants of the remote farmhouse in Central Java.

An AFP reporter said he saw at least three bodies taken from the house and police reportedly shook hands and celebrated as they emerged from their final assault on the property, after hours of heavy gunfire and explosions.

Police also announced the arrests of five of Noordin's alleged accomplices and the death of two men recruited to be suicide bombers for Noordin's network during a raid on a house outside Jakarta.

Indonesian president intended target

A house belonging to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was the intended target of the two would-be suicide bombers, National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said.

"Our president was a target," he told reporters, adding an accomplice of the men had told police they were planning to detonate a small truck packed with explosives at the house later this month.

"They were would-be bridegrooms (suicide bombers) with special targets for attacks to be carried out two weeks from now... This place was a cell of NMT (Noordin Mohammed Top)."

Elite police carrying assault rifles entered the hideout in Central Java after it had been besieged as part of investigations into last month's twin suicide bombings on hotels in Jakarta which killed seven people.

An accomplice of the men had told police they were planning to detonate the truck-bomb at the house in about two weeks' time, which would roughly coincide with the Aug 17 anniversary of Indonesian independence.

Their rented house was about a 12-minute drive away from the residential property belonging to President Yudhoyono, Danuri said.

Malaysian-born Noordin, 40, is believed to have masterminded that attack as well as three other suicide bombings against Western targets in Indonesia which left some 40 people dead and hundreds injured.

Heavily armed special forces, backed by armoured vehicles, stormed the squat, single-storey hideout on the edge of a vast rice paddy shortly before 10am (11am Malaysian time).

Police surrounded the house yesterday afternoon after arresting two people at a nearby market who were reported to be relatives of the tenant of the property.

We have to conduct DNA tests first

The raid was the culmination of a series of arrests and operations designed to disrupt Noordin's network and track down the country's most wanted man in the aftermath of the July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

President Yudhoyono thanked police but made no comment on Noordin's reported demise.

"On behalf of the state, the government and the people of Indonesia I want to say thank you and show our highest respect to the police for their brilliant job," he said at the state palace in Jakarta.

Police chief Danuri said only one person had been killed during the siege, but said he would not confirm who it was until next week.

"We have to conduct DNA tests first. We have to wait for the laboratory tests and the forensics, so we won't be saying anything yet," he told a press conference.

House used as a base by Noordin

Danuri said the two would-be suicide bombers targeting the president were shot dead as they were about to detonate handmade bombs during the raid just outside the capital which uncovered a cache of explosive material and a car rigged as a bomb.

The booby-trapped house in suburban Bekasi was being used as a base by a "cell of NMT (Noordin Mohammed Top)," Danuri said, and was packed with enough explosive material to make a 100-kilogram bomb.

The would-be bombers had been "accomplices" in the Australian embassy attack of 2004, when a massive suicide car bomb was detonated outside the embassy in central Jakarta, killing 10 people and wounding scores more, he said.

Narrowly evaded capture a few times

Malaysian Islamist Noordin, 40, was one of the most wanted alleged terrorists in Asia.

He was blamed for multiple suicide bombings in Indonesia which have killed more than 40 people since 2003.

Noordin was a member of the Jemaah Islamiah regional terror movement responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200 people, but split around 2003 to form his own militant group, analysts said.

He was wanted over suicide bombings on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, the Australian embassy in 2004 and tourist restaurants in Bali in 2005.

Police have come close to arresting Noordin several times in the past and have captured or killed some of his closest associates during the six-year manhunt.

Days after the July 17 attacks a woman believed to be his third wife was arrested, also in Central Java.

- AFP