Indonesia president confirms death of militant Dulmatin

Dulmatin is the alleged mastermind behind the Bali bombings

The Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has confirmed that the terror suspect Dulmatin was killed in a police raid in Jakarta.

Indonesian security forces said they had killed three suspected militants in two raids on Tuesday.

But they could not confirm that Dulmatin, alleged mastermind behind the 2002 Bali bombings, was among those killed.

Mr Yudhoyono is on a three-day trip to neighbouring Australia.

The raids were said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province that has brought a number of arrests.

Most wanted

"We can confirm that one of those that were killed was Mr Dulmatin, one of the top south-east Asian terrorists that we have been looking for," Mr Yudhoyono said through an interpreter in a luncheon speech at Australia's parliament.

The killing of Dulmatin will be greeted with particular enthusiasm in Australia - half of the almost 200 casualties in the Bali bombings were Australian.

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had earlier praised Indonesia's efforts to dismantle terrorist networks.

He was speaking in Canberra at a joint news conference with Mr Yudhoyono.

Mr Rudd described the Indonesian operation as very professional and significant.

Security forces in Aceh have been targeting militants recently

Indonesia's anti-terrorist forces have launched a series of raids nationwide after the discovery of an alleged Islamist militant training camp in the province of Aceh last month.

The BBC's Indonesia correspondent Karishma Vaswani says Dulmatin has been an elusive target. A few years ago, the Phillippines army said he had been injured during a gun battle, but no one could say for sure that he had been seriously hurt.

DNA tests were carried out on a body found in the southern Philippines in 2008, but it was confirmed not to be his.

DNA tests had also been necessary to prove beyond doubt that Noordin Mohamed Top, at the time Indonesia's most-wanted Islamist militant, had been killed in September 2009.

Troubling?

Security analysts say that while the killing of Dulmatin is a significant coup for Indonesian authorities, and shows they are doing their job, it is also a troubling sign that terror networks in Indonesia could be seeing a possible rejuvenation.

Our correspondent says that would be a big concern for Indonesian police who had hoped that their efforts to stamp out terrorism in the archipelago over the last few years had been successful.

The latest raids come less than two weeks before the visit to Indonesia of US President Barack Obama.

Indonesia has made significant inroads in recent years into dismantling the leadership of Jemaah Islamiah.

The police have also been recently engaged in an operation targeting Aceh militants.

A total of 14 people have been charged with plotting to launch terrorist attacks.

Those charged are believed by officials to be members of a previously unknown terror group.

But seizures in raids included DVDs on the Bali bombings.

Police have been investigating possible links between the militants and Jemaah Islamiyah, which was blamed by the authorities for the Bali attacks.