•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

The National Police said DNA test results alone would determine whether Malaysian terror suspect Noordin M Top was killed during a weekend raid in Central Java, but senior counterterrorism officials said on Sunday that Southeast Asia’s most wanted man was still at large.

Police initially believed they had killed Noordin after more than 150 officers made a dramatic daylight assault on a farmhouse in Temanggung district on Saturday, but it appears they only killed one of his alleged accomplices in the July 17 suicide bombing attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.

Two police counterterrorism officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Jakarta Globe that Noordin was not killed in the assault. They said intense media coverage of the raid, which began late on Friday afternoon when the farmhouse was surrounded, had perpetuated the belief that a man found dead inside was Noordin.

“Based on his fingerprints, his facial features and body posture, we can confirm that he is not Noordin,” said a senior official from Densus 88, the police antiterror unit.

Another National Police official said forensic investigators had enlisted a convicted terrorist named Usman, a former Noordin follower who was released from prison on May 12 after serving a four-year sentence, in identifying the body.

“Usman confirmed at first glance that it was not Noordin,” the official said.

Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarnan, a police spokesman, said on Sunday that it could be days before DNA tests were completed.

“We urge people to be patient and avoid further speculation,” he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking on Sunday at the opening of a regional HIV/AIDS conference in Bali, said he had “every confidence that just like in the past, we will be able to capture and neutralize these terrorists. We will keep on hunting them and remain vigilant.”

Police had been monitoring the farmhouse before last month’s hotel bombings. The official from Densus 88 said police now suspect that Aries, one of three suspects from the house who were arrested on Friday afternoon, was lying when he said Noordin was there.
“One of the squad members said he also spotted Noordin, but apparently it was not him,” the official said, adding that police had identified the body as a man “directly linked to the July 17 bombings.”

The DNA testing, the official said, was merely a formality.

“We already have a DNA sample from Noordin’s father. But even without the sample, we can already confirm that it’s not him,” the official said.

The National Police have come under fire for failing to capture Noordin. The fugitive has also been blamed for suicide attacks in Bali in 2005, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and on the Marriott in 2003.

Ken Conboy, author of “Inside Jemaah Islamiyah, Asia’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Network,” said the investigation into last month’s attacks exposed the seriousness of the country’s terrorism problem.

“If this was a separate group who carried out the hotel bombings — Sundanese based out of Bogor — this is a tremendous concern that you were able to have a group on the fringes of the capital able to operate,” he said. “That is a nightmare scenario.”

Police have identified the July bombers as Dani Dwi Purnama, 19, from Parung, south of Jakarta; and Nana Ichwa Maulana, 28, of Pandeglang, Banten.