Tests before Dulmatin identity confirmed

10 Mar 2010, 8:12 am   -   Source: AFP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0
Indonesian police are carrying out tests on the bodies of those killed in a counter-terrorism raid (AP)

Indonesian police are carrying out tests on the bodies of those killed in a counter-terrorism raid (AP)

Forensic tests will be carried out on the body of a man killed in a raid in Jakarta to determine if he is Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings.

RELATED

Forensic tests will be carried out on the body of a man killed in a raid in Jakarta to determine if he is Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings.

The man was among three people killed in two raids on the Indonesian capital's outskirts on Tuesday.

Police did not disclose the identity of the three, saying "a forensic examination was still being carried out".

Millions 'offered in bounty'

But a police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one was believed to be Dulmatin, a leader of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant group and an al-Qaeda-trained bomb-making specialist for whom Washington is offering a $US10 million ($A11 million) bounty.

It is not the first report of Dulmatin's death. In 2008, Philippine military officials said they believed Dulmatin's body had been exhumed on the southern Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi.

Dulmatin death 'a relief'

The Indonesian security ministry's counter-terrorism chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said: "If it's true that it's him, we will be very grateful that the most wanted terrorist has been killed in Pamulang. It will be a big relief to us."

A spokesman for Dulmatin's family, sibling Azam Ba'afut, told Indonesia's Antara news agency that "we frequently receive the news of Dulmatin's death ... But up until now the fact is still unclear.

"If he is really dead, we must accept it and ask that his body be buried in Pemalang," he added, referring to Dulmatin's hometown.

National police spokesman Edward Aritonang told a news conference that one of the three men was killed in a gunfight with counter-terrorism police at an internet cafe in Pamulang, west of the capital.

Motorcyclists shot dead

Witnesses saw a body bag being taken from the cafe into an ambulance following the gunfight.

In a later raid a few kilometres from the first incident, two other people on a motorcycle were shot dead, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Police confirmed that the operation was linked to a counter-terrorism raid in Aceh province in which a militant training facility was discovered. Sixteen suspects have been arrested so far and charged under counter-terrorism laws.

The operations come ahead of US President Barack Obama's planned visit to Indonesia later this month.

JI inspired by al-Qaeda

Believed to be 39 years old, Dulmatin is accused of helping JI plan and carry out the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people on the Indonesian resort island, most of them foreign tourists.

JI is a South-East Asian extremist group inspired by al-Qaeda. Its ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state, using terrorist attacks to destabilise existing governments.

The group has carried out more than 50 bombings in Indonesia since April 1999, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, including the 2002 Bali bombings and attacks on the resort island in 2005 that killed 20.

The last such attack killed seven people and two suicide bombers in two luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.

Malaysian terror mastermind Noordin Mohammad Top, killed in September 2009, allegedly organised the attacks as part of his al-Qaeda-inspired "holy war" on the West.

Slipping through borders

He was falsely reported to have been killed a month earlier by local media.

The Philippine military said there was a possibility Dulmatin had returned to Indonesia after some years in the southern part of Mindanao island.

"When I assumed the post in July last year it was possible that he had already gotten out by then. Our border areas in the Mindanao area are porous and so it was possible he was able to slip out and return (to Indonesia)," Major General Ben Dolorfino, military commander of the southwestern Philippines, said on Tuesday.

However, he was reserved in commenting about Dulmatin's possible death.

"We have not received any report that says he is dead," Dolorfino said.

 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.