Dulmatin was alleged to be a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) – a militant group with links to al-Qaeda – which has a long history of launching attacks in Indonesia and is blamed for the Bali attack.
His role was to “prepare military training, buy weapons and bullets and finance military training activities”, said Mr Danuri.
He was killed in raids on Tuesday said to be linked to an ongoing operation against militants in Aceh province. The raids have also led to a number of arrests.
His death was also confirmed by Mr Yudhoyono, who said Dulmatin was “one of the top south-east Asian terrorists that we have been looking for”.
At a joint lunch meeting in Canberra, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd praised Indonesia for making “significant breakthroughs” in “undermining various terrorist networks”.
“Our own law enforcement agencies, our own security agencies have worked in close partnerships with our Indonesian friends,” he said.
But he said the “challenge of terrorism continues into the future” and that travel warnings remained in place for Australians.
Alexander Downer, Australia’s foreign minister at the time of the attacks, told the BBC World Service Dulmatin’s death was “no great loss”.
He said compared to other countries battling terror groups, Indonesia had done “pretty much the best job” at reducing the threat of home-grown attacks.
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 Philippines 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.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Be The First To Comment
Related Post
Please Leave Your Comments Below