By Telly Nathalia
KEDU, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police have shot dead a man suspected to be leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body, police sources said on Saturday.
Malaysian-born Top is a prime suspect in the near simultaneous suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels which killed nine people and wounded 53.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if Top has been killed or captured it would be major coup for security forces and could help reduce the chance of further attacks.
Police have launched a series of raids since Friday and a police source close to the investigation into the hotel attacks said a man suspected to be Top was killed during a raid on a workshop in Temanggung, over 250 miles southeast of Jakarta.
"He was shot dead," the source said, adding that raids in the area had led police to a house in Bekasi, on the outskirts of the capital, where up to 500 kg of bombs had been found. A Reuters correspondent in Bekasi heard a loud blast from the cordoned-off area and police said they had killed two suspected militants.
A source in Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 also said police believed Top had been killed.
"I think this is very significant. Hopefully the person in Temanggung is Noordin," said national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna.
Intelligence officials say Top and fellow Malaysian Azahari Husin, a bomb-maker who was killed in a 2005 police raid, were leaders in the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia since 2002. [nSP486131]
Top is believed to have planned previous bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.
On Friday, police had said two men who were believed to be Top's bodyguards had been arrested in a workshop in a market in Temanggung and had led police to a house in the same area where there had been a shoot-out with suspected militants.
After an overnight standoff and sporadic exchanges of gunfire, explosions followed by gunfire could be heard at the remote house surrounded by rice fields in Temanggung where three to four suspected militants were thought to be holed up.
TV footage showed heavily armed black-clad police from the anti-terrorism unit creeping towards the house, some sheltering behind shields. The shooting appeared to die down later in the morning and Metro TV said police were carrying out some items from inside.
Local TV network TVOne quoted an unnamed police source as saying that Top may still be in the house after being shot and wounded.
HOTEL SUICIDE BOMBERS IDENTIFIED
In Bekasi, two men were shot dead after throwing a pipe bomb at police -- one a suspected bomb-maker and the other linked to a 2004 attack on the Australian embassy, said Soekarna.
He said two other suspects believed to be involved in recruiting suicide bombers were still on the run.
National Police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said police had captured three men in Central Java and three men in Jakarta during the raids.
He said the bombs appeared to have been prepared for use in a car bomb attack on "a very particular target," but did not elaborate.
Soekarna said police had identified the two suicide bombers who carried out the hotel attacks -- 19-year-old Danny Dwi Permana from Bogor in the Marriott attack and 28 year-old Nana Ihwa Maulana from Pandeglang in the Ritz-Carlton bombing.
(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia and Karima Anjani; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Nick Macfie)
