SOLO, Indonesia - Gunfire and an explosion killed four suspected militants and wounded a police officer today when authorities raided an alleged hideout in central Indonesia while hunting for suspects in Jakarta hotel bombings, an official said.
Three suspects were captured, police said.
The raid ended around dawn when an explosion was detonated inside a besieged village house on the outskirts of the town of Solo, in Central Java, the antiterror official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.
The blast is believed to have been a suicide bomb, he said, adding that a police officer was shot during the seven-hour siege. His condition was unknown.
Among the four dead was a fugitive bomb maker, Bagus Budi Pranowo, also known as Urwah, who was wanted in connection with twin suicide blasts at luxury hotels in the capital, Jakarta, in July, the official said. A young couple who rented the house and had been teaching Islamic studies at local schools were also killed, he said.
Pranowo, 31, was released in 2007 after serving a sentence for harboring terrorists. Experts say he was a close associate of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terrorism suspect, Muhammad Noordin Top. He also was closely linked to clerics in the Jemaah Islamiyah regional militant network and had been recruiting members to carry out attacks.
