BOM JW MARRIOT-RIZT CARLTON: DNA Shows Body of Slain Militant not Noordin Top

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE. Indonesian police say DNA tests show the body of a suspected terrorist killed in a 16-hour siege last week is not one of the region’s most wanted men.

Police official Eddy Saparwoko said Wednesday that results showed that the man killed in a shootout with anti-terrorism forces last week was not Noordin Muhammad Top, despite early media reports that he may have been slain.

Saparwoko said “the DNA test didn’t match with Noordin’s family.” Noordin, a Malaysian, has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks in Indonesia since 2003 and is the prime suspect in the twin suicide hotel bombings in Jakarta on July 17 that killed seven people.

Local media had reported that Noordin was slain in a gunbattle with security forces. But Saparwoko said the man who died in the shootout at a farmhouse in central Java on Saturday was a florist, identified only as Ibrohim. He made floral arrangements at the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton, where suicide bombers attacked last month during breakfast, killing themselves and wounding more than 50 others.

National police chief Nanan Sukarna identified Ibrohim as “a planner and arranger of the bombings” and said that five other suspects in the blasts remain at large, including Noordin. (english.kompas.com)