Bali bombing suspect 'killed in shootout with Indonesian police'

Bali bombing suspect 'killed in shootout with Indonesian police'
Officials claim Dulmatin, an explosives expert, was one of three suspects shot dead by anti-terror officers near Jakarta

Adam Gabbatt and agencies guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 March 2010 10.54 GMT


Dulmatin, aka Joko Pitono, who is suspected of masterminding the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, is believed to have been killed in a police raid. Photograph: EPA

One of the men suspected of masterminding the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings has been killed in a shootout with police, according to reports.

Officials said Dulmatin, an explosives expert thought to have been a key member of the team that killed 202 people, was believed to have been shot dead.

Anti-terror police hunting a mastermind of Indonesia's worst terror attack confirmed they had killed three suspects near Jakarta today. One suspect was killed after he shot at police as they raided a commercial building south-west of the country's capital, a police spokesman, Major General Edward Aritonang, said. Police later shot and killed two suspects on a motorcycle, he added. Both had been fleeing police and one was firing a gun.

Local media and two Indonesian authorities who did not want to be named said the first suspect killed was believed to be Dulmatin, although Aritonang said he had yet to be identified. "We will announce who he is as soon as police identify him," he said.

A police source involved in the operation, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that police "strongly suspect it was Dulmatin".

The suspect, an electronics specialist who had trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, was thought to have fled to the Philippines.

Aritonang said the raids came after a police crackdown on a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah group – a regional offshoot of al-Qaida – in Aceh. He said information had been gathered after the arrest of 20 suspects in Java and Aceh on 22 February.

A government source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the suspects captured in Aceh had provided police with information about Dulmatin's whereabouts.