A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country. Dulmatin, who once trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was one of three militants killed in a shootout with police at an Internet cafe and a house nearby, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Wednesday. “Today I can announce to you that after a successful police raid against the terrorists hiding out in Jakarta yesterday, we can confirm that one of those that was killed was Dulmatin, one of the top Southeast Asian terrorists,” Yudhoyono said in a speech in Australia's parliament house in Canberra. The series of police raids that led to Dulmatin's death will be seen as a coup in Indonesia's fight against militants ahead of US President Barack Obama's visit March 20-22. But analysts said Dulmatin's emergence in Indonesia with a new group showed a worrisome ability of local militants to forge international links, including with Al-Qaeda-affiliated outfits. Police shot dead Dulmatin, who they said fired at officers with a revolver he was carrying, and two others in a series of coordinated raids on the outskirts of Jakarta Tuesday. Dulmatin's body was identified after DNA tests and also by his chin shape, eyebrows and freckles, police said Wednesday. The other two men killed were said to be his bodyguards. Dulmatin, an electronics specialist, was a top bomb technician for the Southeast Asian militant group, Jemaah Islamiah. Authorities say he helped plan the suicide bombings that ripped apart two night clubs in Bali and killed 202 people in 2002. He fled to the southern Philippines in 2003 and the US government had a $10 million reward for his capture. The 40-year-old who was born in Central Java is said to have been wounded after escaping a raid by Philippine security forces. Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, has launched raids across the archipelago following the discovery of a militant training camp in Aceh last month. Books on jihad, rifles and military uniforms were found during the raids in which 21 suspected members of the group were detained in Aceh and Java. Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying Tuesday the group planned to set up a Southeast Asian jihadist network in the Sumatran province.
