Noordin Followers Ready to Mount Attacks in Indonesia

So where did I listen to the dialogue DEATH IS NOT THE END ITS A BEGINING seems like Noordin top has died or as claimed by the officers, but his army of brain washed fellaws are in multiplicity trying to havoc. bloomberg

By Achmad Sukarsono

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesian police said the country may face further terrorist attacks as they investigate whether Noordin Mohammad Top, Southeast Asia’s most wanted man, was among militants killed in weekend gun battles.

Officers are trying to determine whether a man killed in a firefight in Central Java on Aug. 8 is Noordin, and the results of DNA and other tests may be known in two weeks, national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said yesterday.

“If Noordin is dead, there are still many terrorists at large,” Soekarna told reporters in Jakarta. “We have to make Noordin or whoever the terrorists are our common enemy.”

Noordin is suspected of planning attacks that have killed almost 300 people in Indonesia since 2002, including the July 17 suicide bombings at two Jakarta hotels. He may have been among three militants killed in anti-terrorism operations at the weekend that thwarted a plan to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, police say.

Security around Yudhoyono has been heightened, presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told reporters late yesterday. “You can see by yourself the threat is real,” he said. “The state leader and the state itself should not be beaten by terrorism. A threat against a state institution is a threat against the nation.”

While Indonesian security forces have been successful in targeting extremists, the terrorism threat remains, said Jacob Ramsay, a Southeast Asia analyst at Control Risks Group Pte Ltd. in Singapore.

Militants Killed

“The threat is amorphous,” Ramsay said yesterday in an interview in Jakarta. “They will try again to target government figures alongside Western-branded companies, hotels and establishments.”

One militant was killed during a firefight with police on Aug. 8 at a house in Temanggung, Central Java, 360 kilometers (224 miles) east of the capital. Local television station TVone broadcast images of the shootout and said that someone shouted, “I am Noordin Top,” at black-clad policemen carrying steel shields who were inching toward the door.

Two other men were shot dead in Bekasi, 20 kilometers east of Jakarta, the same day near a building that may have been a safe house for Noordin, National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. Terrorists were planning to load a pick-up truck with explosives and use it to attack Yudhoyono’s home, about 10 kilometers from that house, he said.

DNA Testing

Soekarna declined to comment on a Detik.com report today saying DNA from one of Noordin’s children doesn’t match the body of the dead militant being tested in Jakarta.

The news Web site said Noordin’s family in Malaysia received an “unofficial report” that DNA samples didn’t match, citing Noordin family spokesman Badarudin Ismail.

“Let’s just wait for the victim identification result,” Soekarna said.

Yudhoyono has stepped up a seven-year manhunt for Noordin after the bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels left nine people dead, including the two attackers. They were the first terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2005.

The president was re-elected in July partly on his perceived ability to contain such attacks.

Noordin, 41, a former member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, wasn’t among those killed or captured, the Jakarta Post reported, citing police officials.

He probably fled the scene before police arrived, terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said, citing officials close to the investigation.

Noordin “is a very capable operative,” said Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. “Indonesia will have to take the threat even more seriously and they have to hunt him down.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Achmad Sukarsono in Jakarta at asukarsono@bloomberg.net.