Police: Terrorist slain in Temanggung not Noordin M Top

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The terrorist shot dead in a raid in Temanggung, Central Java, last Saturday was not Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, police said.
The chief of the National Police Headquarters` public relations division, Insp Gen Nanan Soekarna, said here on Wednesday, DNA tests on the body from Temanggung proved it belonged to Ibrohim, who was wanted for his role in the July 17, 2009 bombings at the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in Jakarta.

Soekarna made the statement to the press at the Soekanto police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, in the company of Police Health and Medical Center chief Brig Gen Edy Saparwoko.

He said the police could not immediately announce the identity of the dead man from Tembanggung because they had to wait for the results of the DNA tests.

"Ibrohim played a dominant role in the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Mega Kuningan in Jakarta," Soekarna said, adding Ibrohim was a florist at one of the hotels. He had helped to carry bombs into the hotel and hide them in Room 1808 of the JW Marriott Hotel.

The almost simultaneous bomb explosions at the two luxury hotels claimed nine lives including six foreigners.

Meanwhile, Brig Gen Edy Saparwoko said the police had tried to match the DNA of the slain terrorist in Temanggung with samples of the DNA of Noordin M Top`s son in Johor, Malaysia, and of some of his other family members in Cilacap and Klaten, Central Java, but the results were negative.

Saparwoko said the police then compared the dead man`s DNA with those of Ibrohim`s son and daughter, and they matched one hundred percent.

Noordin is one of Asia`s most wanted terror suspects blamed for a series of attacks in Indonesia since 2003, including the twin suicide blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last month.(*)