Indonesia police raid terrorist hideout; 1 dead

JAKARTA (AP) — An elite anti-terrorism squad arrested Indonesia’s most wanted man and two other suspects yesterday after raiding their hideout on the country’s main island of Java, police and witnesses said. At least one person was killed and several weapons seized, including a bomb in a backpack.

An investigator who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case said among those taken alive was Abdullah Sunata. He jumped to the top of the country’s wanted list after allegedly setting up a network that was plotting a Mumbai-style attack in the world’s most populous Muslim country and high-profile assassinations.

At least 60 members of that group have been arrested and 13 others killed.

Several television stations quoted unidentified sources as saying Sunata had been taken in, but Brig. Gen. Zaenuri Lubis, a spokesman for the national police, told Metro TV he could not immediately confirm that because “frankly, I have not yet been able to contact those in the field.”

Officers raided the suspects’ rented home in Cungkrungan, a village in Central Java province, late yesterday afternoon.

At least nine shots were fired, Jimo, a neighbor, told The Associated Press. The area was cleared of residents while experts tried to detonate a bomb discovered inside a backpack, he said. At least one revolver also was seized.

Indonesia has battled Islamist militants with links to al-Qaeda since 2002, when extremists bombed a nightclub district on Bali island, killing 202 people, most of them foreigners. Since then, hundreds of militants have been captured or killed in a security crackdown, but they have proved to be a resilient foe.