Azahari was poised to strike Sian Powell 11nov05 THE mastermind behind the two Bali bombings, Azahari bin Husin, was stockpiling bombs for another terrorist atrocity when he was killed in a shootout by Indonesian police on Wednesday.
The reddened and bloated remains of the Australian-educated Malaysian bomb-maker were packed into a yellow body bag late yesterday after he was identified from fingerprints in the ruins of a rented house in East Java. More than 30 bombs were found in the house in the scenic hill village of Batu, on the outskirts of Malang, according to police officers on the scene. Two vests were also found in the modest house, one filled with dynamite. Indonesian national police chief General Sutanto said the bombs had been "primed to explode" and had yet to be defused and removed from the ruined house. The death of Azahari, wanted for a string of deadly bombings stretching back to the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 202 people, is considered a massive breakthrough in the regional war on terror. Last week's identification of two of the three suicide bombers who killed 23 people, including four Australians, in packed Bali restaurants last month led police to Azahari. Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said "follow-up inquiries" into one of the dead bombers, who was from East Java, had led to Azahari's location. >"Once ... we became aware of the intelligence and the information we forward-deployed from Bali to the area, but obviously we're not in a position to operate with lethal force in Indonesia," Mr Keelty said from Bangkok. "So we were in the area, but not exactly at the house, when the exchange took place." Indonesian national police spokesman General Aryanto Budiharjo said a man known only by his initials, CH, who led detectives to Azahari, had been trained to make bombs by Azahari and he told the police where his mentor was living -- in the small pale-green house in the hill resort of Batu, on the outskirts of the eastern Java city of Malang. General Budiharjo said Azahari's death was no reason for optimism. "We have to see how many more people have been trained by him," he said. One of Azahari's followers, a man known as Sumanji, or Affandi, was arrested at the house late on Wednesday, and taken to Surabaya for interrogation. Police also refused to confirm speculation that Azahari's partner, the wanted extremist and Jemaah Islamiah leader Noordin Mohammad Top, had slipped the net in Semarang. AFP officers had been helping the Indonesians hunt Azahari since the first Bali bombings and there was an AFP team close to the scene of the shootout that ended in his death. Mr Keelty said the identification of the suicide bomber had led the AFP-Indonesian police joint tracking team to East Java. "Some more precise information came through the day before yesterday and we've been working on that with the Indonesians since then," he said. In Batu yesterday, broken glass was still scattered on the street in front of the little pale-green house. With doors and windows blown out, and bullet holes in its front wall, it looked as though it had been through a small war. Neighbour Yoni Burhanudin, whose house is just around the corner, said she saw plain-clothes police arrive on Wednesday afternoon and spread out through the streets, and up on to nearby roofs. She heard one shout through a megaphone: "Azahari and friends, we ask you to come out." Almost immediately, she said, the gun battle began, punctuated with many small explosions and one huge one. "At first, when I saw the police, I wasn't scared," she said, explaining that she thought the police were chasing a drug dealer. "But then I heard them say it was Dr Azahari. I ran inside and put on my motorbike helmet. We all know about him and bombs." Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had been kept abreast of the developments since the raid began, said: "There's a strong indication that Batu is a place where Dr Azahari and his group had been planning a series of bombings." In a veiled call for information on Azahari's partner, Top, he added: "I take this opportunity to appeal to the Indonesian people who have knowledge of these terrorists who undermine the nation to help and pass the information to police." Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison described the death of Azahari as a big breakthrough in the fight against JI. "(But) this is not the end of it," he told parliament. privacy terms © The Australian ====================================== Jusfiq Hadjar gelar Sutan Maradjo Lelo ....................................... Orang Islam tipikal kudu sadar bahwa al-Mushaf itu TIDAK berbukti berisi wahyu Allah dan hadits itu mustahil ada yang sahih ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. 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