Indonesia terrorism mastermind still at large

A suspect shot dead in Indonesia last weekend was not Islamist leader Noordin Mohammad Top police announced Wednesday, dashing hopes for a breakthrough in a hunt for the mastermind of a string of attacks while his family publically denounced.

DNA tests showed that a fighter killed in the raid was not the alleged terror financier and recruiter, one of Asia's most-wanted men, but an accomplice who had helped plan the July 17 hotel bombings in Jakarta.

The man killed in the raid was identified as Ibrohim, who worked as a florist in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta and is suspected to be the inside man on the suicide bombings at two luxury hotels in Jakarta last month.

Top is believed to have planned last month's near-simultaneous suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which killed nine people and wounded 53.

The police were at first confident that Top had been killed during an 18-hour siege at a remote farmhouse in Central Java.

Media reports quoting police sources said Top probably fled a few hours before the anti-terrorism unit raided the house.

National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said the authorities believed Top was still in Indonesia and expected him to keep on trying to launch attacks. "The assumption is that he will keep on doing so," he told reporters.

Blamed for series of attacks

Top, who formed a violent wing of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant network, is blamed for a series of attacks, including on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.

His escape is a blow for security forces and efforts to contain further attacks in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

"The fact that Noordin is still at large means there's still a possibility of his group mounting other attacks in the future," said Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamic militants at the International Crisis Group.

"I think it's got to be still the number one priority of the police to find out where he is and find out who else was involved in the planning of these attacks," added Jones.

"We checked samples with (Ibrohim's) family in Cilimus and it's a 100 percent match," Eddy Saparwoko, head of Indonesia's Disaster Victim Identification unit, told a news conference. Cilimus is a district in Cirebon in West Java.

The fact that Noordin is still at large means there's still a possibility of his group mounting other attacks in the future

Sidney Jones

"Field commander"

Police showed CCTV footage where Ibrohim, who called himself Boim at work, appeared to be surveying parts of the lobby and restaurant in the hotel. He disappeared immediately after the attacks.

Soekarna described him as the "field commander" for the operations. Police said he had been a member of JI since 2000.

"He was the planner, organizer, controller, operator of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton bombings," added Soekarna, who said Ibrohim had attended a meeting that included Top and the two suicide bombers prior to the attacks.

Ibrohim had also been seen accompanying one of the suicide bombers at the hotel and had helped smuggle in bombs to room 1808 at the Marriott where they were assembled, police said.

Police have identified the suicide bombers as two men, aged 18 and 28, who were previously unknown to authorities.

Police believe Ibrohim was also lined up to be the suicide bomber in a plot to attack a residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono using a minibus packed with explosives in retaliation for the execution of the Bali bombers last year.

He was the planner, organizer, controller, operator of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton bombings

National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna

Family disowns him

Meanwhile Top's Malaysian family have washed their hands of the terrorist mastermind, saying he deserted his wife and three children years ago, a report said Wednesday.

"My son-in-law is more of a problem than anything else," Noordin's father-in-law Rusdi Hamid said according to the New Straits Times.

"Whatever happens, happens. We have left his fate to Allah," he said as the family awaited the results of DNA tests to determine whether a militant killed in a weekend raid in Indonesia was his son-in-law.

"Even if he is dead, it would not leave an impact on the family. After all, he left us for eight years without saying a word," said Rusdi.

The 67-year-old told the daily he was pleased when Noordin asked for permission to marry his daughter, as he had a good reputation in their village where he was the principal of a religious school.

But in 2001, Rusdi said he abruptly left the village in southern Malaysia without leaving any money to support his wife and three young children -- the children are now aged 10, nine and eight years.

"My duty now is to look after my daughter and her three children. Whatever happens to Noordin, I leave it to God."

"The whole world is looking for him. I don't think I will ever see him again. I don't even know what to say to him if I did," he reportedly said.

My son-in-law is more of a problem than anything else

Rusdi Hamid, father in law