Top terror leader reportedly killed in Indonesia

---

BEJI, Aug 8 (AP): Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspect was reportedly killed during a 16-hour siege on a suspected militant hide-out that ended Saturday when police stormed the house, but officials said they could not yet confirm he was among the dead.
Local TV stations reported militant chief Noordin Mohammad Top, who is blamed for last month's attacks on two American hotels in the capital, Jakarta, as well as bombings on the resort island of Bali, was killed in the bathroom of the house in a rice-growing village in central Java province following a lengthy bomb and gun battle.
The body of a man believed to be Noordin was flown to Jakarta for an autopsy, but police "cannot yet confirm that this is Noordin Top," national police chief Bambang Hendarso Damuri said.
Police don't want to say that Noordin is assumed dead and any announcement will have to wait until next week after a DNA examination is complete, Hendarso said at nationally televised news conference.
The suicide attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed seven people, all but one of them foreigners, and ended a four-year pause in terror strikes in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Noordin is also believed to have played a major role in four other bombings in Indonesia since 2002, including nightclub attacks on the resort island of Bali that year that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
He later emerged as a regional terrorist leader and skilled bomb maker who has been accused of masterminding a series of suicide attacks - including the triple Bali bombings in 2005 - that killed dozens of people.
Noordin is a Malaysian citizen who claimed in a video in 2005 to be al-Qaida's representative in Southeast Asia and to be carrying out attacks on Western civilians to avenge Muslim deaths in Afghanistan.
Killing or capturing him would be a major victory in Indonesia's fight against militants and could significantly weaken the chances of more attacks, given the key planning, financial and motivational role he is believed to have played in terror networks. Police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said officers believed Noordin, who is Southeast Asia's most wanted militant suspect, and two or three of his followers were inside the raided home, but could not immediately confirm their fate.