BINANGUN (Indonesia), April 29: One of Southeast Asia’s most wanted fugitives Noordin Mohammad Top narrowly escaped capture by Indonesian police on Saturday in a raid that saw two of his top aides killed, police said.

The elusive Malaysian-born militant, accused of masterminding a series of deadly terror attacks including the 2002 Bali bombing, was not at the house he had been frequenting in central Java’s sleepy Binangun village, they said.

“We carried out a raid on a group we have been looking for. There was a shootout. Two people died in the shootout,” national police chief Sutanto told reporters in remarks broadcast on ElShinta radio.

Dramatic footage broadcast on local ANTV showed dozens of black-clad elite police and snipers surrounding the blue-trimmed home shaded by banana palms and several small explosions detonating inside.

A police-detonated blast blew out one of the wooden doors and police were seen dragging a shirtless man through a window and taking him out into the street. It was not clear whether he was one of two men detained in the raid.

Noordin was believed to have been a top recruiter for the Al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional extremist network but analysts believe both he and his now-dead main accomplice Azahari Husin may have split off to form an even more radical group.

He most recently evaded capture by police last November, days after Azahari was killed in a hail of gunfire by police at his East Java hideout in Batu.

At the time, police swooped on a house where Noordin had reportedly stayed only a day earlier but found only documents and ammunition.

The militant — variously described by police as clean-shaven, bearded or moustachioed — was also believed to have given police the slip by a matter of hours in the Central Java capital Semarang, just before Azahari was killed.

Police spokesman Bambang Kuncoko told reporters in Jakarta that an elite anti-terror unit and regular police surrounded the rented hideout, located about 400kms south of the capital Jakarta, before dawn.

About three hours later, an exchange of fire broke out between police and those in the house, he said.

“Police believed there were five people inside the house, but we later found only four. We had hoped that when the raid took place, Noordin M. Top would be there but it turned out he was not,” Kuncoko said.—AFP