Indon police nab militants

Noordin Mohammad Top Malaysian-born is accused of masterminding a series of deadly bombings in Indonesia. -- Photo: Indonesian National Police

Jakarta - Indonesian police have caught several militants thought to be linked to Noordin Mohammad Top, one of the country's most wanted men, a police source said on Tuesday. Malaysian-born Top is accused of masterminding a series of deadly bombings including blasts in Bali in 2005 that killed more than 20 people. He is believed to be the leading strategist and a key financier for Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian militant group. Indonesian police say they have often come close to capturing him. A local television station and anti-terror police say bomb-making materials and weapons were seized from a house in the Indonesian capital. TVOne says the man who was renting the home in the Jakarta neighbourhood of Plumpang escaped before police arrived on Tuesday. But the owner has been taken in for questioning. An anti-terror police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press, said a bomb-making manual, pipes, cables and other materials were among the items seized. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been hit in recent years by a string of suicide bombings that have killed more than 240 people. The regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for those attacks. -- REUTERS, AP