KEPUH SARI, Indonesia (AFP) - – Armed Indonesian police stormed an Islamic militant hideout early Thursday in a raid that killed fugitive terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top and three other militants, police said.
Noordin's body was among four recovered after the early morning raid on a village house in Central Java, national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters, bringing to an end an exhaustive six-year manhunt.
"From national police doctors' examinations, antemortem (investigations) and finger prints sent by Malaysian police, thank God on this holy month of Ramadan... it's Noordin M Top," Danuri said to applause.
Loud explosions and gunfire were heard as police raided the rented house at around sunrise after a nine-hour siege on the outskirts of Solo city, a stronghold of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) radical network.
The raid left the simple house in the lush, densely populated region a burnt-out shell.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the death of Noordin and that of an ally, Malaysian bomb expert Azhari Husin, killed by police on Java in 2005, did not mean the end of the militant threat.
"The crippling of these two terrorists in Southeast Asia does not mean all cells working in Indonesia have all been paralysed," he said.
"That's why we must continue to be vigilant and prepare for steps to tackle, optimally prevent and continue to hunt down terrorist leaders, their networks and prominent fugitives."
Police chief Danuri said forces from an elite unit known as Special Detachment 88 launched the raid after interrogating two Noordin acolytes arrested nearby on Wednesday afternoon.
"Despite repeated warnings to surrender there was a firefight. A motorcycle was hit, caught fire and they took refuge by huddling in the bathroom," Danuri said.
"But our men breached the wall as morning prayers came, at around 5:00 or 6:00 am we carried out a quick operation in three hours and we managed to disable them."
Danuri said the three killed along with Noordin were "expert bomb-maker" Bagus Budi Pranoto, alias Urwah, close Noordin associate Ario Sudarso, alias Aji, and the renter of the house, Susilo.
He said two men were also arrested and Susilo's wife, who was wounded in the raid, was also in custody.
Police found 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosive powder already "prepared" by the militants as well as loaded M-16 assault rifles, laptops and surveillance equipment inside the house, he said.
Noordin, a 41-year-old Malaysian who was Southeast Asia's most-wanted man, led a radical splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network blamed for a string of deadly attacks.
The offshoot, labelled Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, is suspected of being behind the July 17 suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
The bombings, which killed seven people including six foreigners, were the first major attacks in Indonesia in nearly four years.
International Crisis Group analyst Sidney Jones said Noordin's death would be a major setback.
"It's a major blow for terrorism in Indonesia generally. I think Noordin was the person most single-mindedly devoted to pursuing the Al-Qaeda line in Indonesia," she said.
"Unquestionably, Noordin's network will be severely weakened but it may not disappear."
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters that the raid that killed Noordin "potentially represents a significant step forward in Indonesia in its battle with extremists."
Indonesian police believe they narrowly missed Noordin in a dramatic televised raid in August on a safe house in Temanggung, also in Central Java.
Noordin was initially reported dead at the end of the 17-hour siege but the body later turned out to be that of a florist working in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex who helped plot the attacks from the inside.
Noordin allegedly also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the Australian embassy bombing and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali.
Jemaah Islamiyah's ultimate goal is to unite Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines into a fundamentalist Islamic state.