DNA confirms Asia's key militant dead
Sunday, 20 September 2009
JAKARTA, Sept 19 (Reuters): 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 the raid, police had identified Top based on fingerprint records held by Malaysian police, but Soekarna said Saturday "the DNA also matches 100 per cent."
The official also held up a photograph of Top's bearded face taken after his death to show the match with those on police file.
Top had eluded authorities for years. In a raid in Central Java last month some police initially thought they had killed the militant only to have forensic tests prove that wrong days later.
DNA results matched samples from three of Top's children from Cilacap in Central Java and Malaysia, said Brigadier General Eddy Saparwoko, head of Indonesia's disaster victim identification unit.
Top had a wife in Malaysia before he fled the country and also took at least one more wife while on the run in Indonesia.
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 the raid, police had identified Top based on fingerprint records held by Malaysian police, but Soekarna said Saturday "the DNA also matches 100 per cent."
The official also held up a photograph of Top's bearded face taken after his death to show the match with those on police file.
Top had eluded authorities for years. In a raid in Central Java last month some police initially thought they had killed the militant only to have forensic tests prove that wrong days later.
DNA results matched samples from three of Top's children from Cilacap in Central Java and Malaysia, said Brigadier General Eddy Saparwoko, head of Indonesia's disaster victim identification unit.
Top had a wife in Malaysia before he fled the country and also took at least one more wife while on the run in Indonesia.