Indonesia police say DNA confirms key militant dead
JAKARTA - Forensic tests on the DNA from the body of a man killed during a raid by Indonesian police this week confirm he was Noordin Mohammad Top, one of Asia's most wanted militants, police said Saturday.
Malaysian-born Top, suspected mastermind of deadly suicide July bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, died Thursday in a shootout during a raid on a house near Solo in Central Java.
There is no doubt that he's Noordin M Top, national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a news conference.
Hours after Thursday's raid, police had identified Top based on fingerprint records held by Malaysian police, but Soekarna said Saturday the DNA also matches 100 percent.
Top had eluded authorities for years and in another raid in Central Java last month some police had initially thought they had killed the militant, only to have forensic tests prove that wrong days later.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy and the world's most populous Muslim country, had been under intense pressure to capture or kill Top ahead of a planned visit by U.S. President Barack Obama in November.
Top, who set up a violent splinter group of regional militant network Jemaah Islamiah, was blamed for attacks in Bali and Jakarta that killed scores of Westerners and Indonesians.
(Reporting by Karima Anjani; Writing by Ed Davies, editing by Ron Popeski)
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