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Indonesia police in shootout with suspected militants

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-07 22:11

JAKARTA: Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit has been involved in a shootout in Central Java during a raid targeting suspected militants behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month, police said on Friday.

Police have been hunting for the perpetrators behind near simultaneous suicide attacks last month on two luxury hotels in Jakarta including prime suspect Malaysian-born militant Noordin Mohammad Top.

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The July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed nine and wounded 53, including Indonesians and foreigners.

Police suspect that Top, who heads a splinter group of radical Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah, may have helped plan the attacks.

"Hopefully it's Noordin's group because they are our main target," national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said.

Police officers from Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 had raided a rented a house in Temanggung, Central Java, in a remote area near rice fields, TVOne reported.

Metro TV said police had shut an area of about one square kilometre around the house and that two men had been captured, and that the raid was still going on.

Soekarna said he could not immediately confirm any arrests.

Police have been focusing much of their search on Central Java, where Top is believed to have a network of sympathisers to help shelter him.

Top is believed to have planned previous bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004, and in Bali in 2005 - attacks designed to scare off foreign tourists and businesses so that JI could create a caliphate across Southeast Asia.