Doubts about Top's death

Noordin Top pictured in undated photos released by Indonesian Police, with his most recent picture on the right. --PHOTO: AP

JAKARTA - FINGERPRINT analysis has confirmed that a man killed by Indonesian police at the weekend was not fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top, a counter-terror police officer said on Monday.

Officials were publicly sticking to their line that only DNA tests would confirm the identity of the body but a source involved in the investigation told AFP Noordin remained at large.

'It's not him. We know from his facial structure as well as his fingerprints,' the police source said, requesting anonymity. 'We're continuing to track his whereabouts.'

Noordin was reported by the local media to have been shot dead by police at the end of a 17-hour siege of a remote farmhouse in Central Java on Saturday.

Senior counter-terrorism official Ansyad Mbai refused to comment on the identity of the body retrieved from the farmhouse, saying DNA tests would confirm whether it was Noordin or not.

'It's better that we wait for the forensic identification,' he said.

Noordin, 40, is a Malaysian Islamist who is wanted for multiple suicide bombings against Western targets in Indonesia since 2003 which have killed around 50 people and injured hundreds.

He is one of the most wanted alleged terror masterminds in Asia, and has a US$100,000 (S$143,929) bounty on his head from the Indonesian government. The police source indicated that Noordin may have escaped from the farmhouse before police laid siege to it around 4.00 pm (5.00 pm Singapore time) on Friday.

'We were not as quick as him,' he said.

Police have come close to arresting the Malaysian, who leads a breakaway faction of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror network, several times and have captured or killed some of his closest associates. They have intensified the hunt since the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the capital, which killed seven people including six foreigners plus the two bombers. -- AFP