Bali bomber mastermind Dulmatin 'killed in shoot-out'
(EPA)
Dulmatin was an explosives expert who was believed to have set off one of the Bali bombs
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The alleged mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings is believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with Indonesian police on the outskirts of Jakarta today.
Dulmatin, nicknamed "the Genius", was an explosives expert who was believed to have set off one of the Bali bombs with a mobile phone, as well as helping to assemble the massive car bomb used in the attacks, which killed 202 people.
The shoot-out happened during a morning raid on a house in Pamulang city, west of the Indonesian capital. Police said the raid, which comes two weeks before a visit by President Obama, targeted Dulmatin and two other senior members of the militant Islamist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah.
Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has launched a series of raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant Islamic training camp in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, last month. Police have detained 21 suspected members of the group in Aceh and Java, while two have been killed.
police chief, confirmed that the man killed was linked to a militant group in Aceh.
"Yes, he is the culprit, the one that sent people to Aceh. He's a big name," Mr Karnavian told reporters.
A police source said that the man was believed to be Dulmatin, one of the most wanted senior leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah. There was no official confirmation on the man's identity but police are due to hold a press conference later today.
Gunfire was heard as police raided a two-storey building at about 11am (0400 GMT) in Pamulang, witnesses told local television.
A television news station quoted witnesses as saying that a man and woman arrived by motorbike at a complex made up of shops and houses. The man, aged between 30 and 40, went into an internet café while the woman went into a salon next door. About ten minutes later members of Detachment 88 raided the internet café, shots were heard and a body bag was taken out. The woman was taken into custody along with a manager of the complex.
"The body of a man has just been taken by an ambulance to a police hospital," a television report quoted a witness as saying.
Dulmatin was the last of the Bali bombers to evade capture. He is believed to have been living in hiding in the Philippines and had been linked to the separatist organisation Abu Sayyaf in the south of the country.
The one-time car mechanic is widely believed to have been the protégé of Azahari Husin, another suspected mastermind of the 2002 Bali attacks and other bombings, who was killed by police in 2005.
Under Husin's guidance Dulmatin became one of the few Jemaah Islamiyah militants who was able to assemble and explode large chlorate and nitrate bombs, according to the Asia Pacific Foundation.
He is also known to have attended a militant training camp in Afghanistan, returning to Indonesia in the mid-1990s, where he is thought to have been a regular visitor at an Islamic school in Solo founded by Abu Bakar Ba'shir, Jemaah Islamiyah's spiritual leader.
Bali bomber mastermind Dulmatin 'killed in shoot-out' - Times Online