12 seconds ago 2009-11-10T07:35:02-08:00
JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesian police confirmed Monday the identity of two brothers wanted over the July 17 hotel bombings in Jakarta who were killed in an anti-terror raid last week.
Police detective Eddy Saparwoto told reporters DNA tests had confirmed the men killed in the Friday raid on a boarding house on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital were Syaifudin Zuhri bin Jaelani and Mohammed Syahrir.
The men were believed to have been close associates of Noordin Mohammed Top, the Malaysian terror leader killed last month who was believed to have masterminded the July twin suicide bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, in which seven people were killed.
Saparwoto said the killing of the men brought near an end a string of police operations launched in the wake of the bombings.
"For the Marriott (and Ritz-Carlton) bombings there are 22 suspects: two suicide bombers, nine people killed in police actions, 10 captured alive and one still on the run," Saparwoto said.
The one remaining wanted man, Ahfam, is believed to have helped raise money for safehouse accommodation for Jaelani and Syahrir, he said.
Jaelani was a Yemen-educated Islamic extremist and "healer" who was accused of recruiting the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the hotels in July.
His brother, Mohammed Syahrir, once worked as a technician for national airline Garuda Indonesia and is known to police from their investigations into the 2004 truck bombing of the Australian embassy, according to analysts.
The police confirmation comes as villagers in the brothers' home village in West Java province publicly rejected a request for them to be returned home for burial.
"We don't want terrorists in our midst, dead or alive. We condemn what they did... killing innocent people is inhuman. It's against Islamic teachings," Sampiran village chief Maman Suparman told AFP.
"All of us disapproved. Our village's name will be tarnished. If the bodies are brought here we will drive them out."
Noordin led a splinter faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group, which he once dubbed "Al-Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago".
In addition to the July hotel blasts, he was blamed for a 2003 attack on the Marriott, the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on Bali, killing almost 50 people in total.
