Indonesia police believe militant chief killed

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police have shot dead a man suspected to be fugitive Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top during raids in Central Java and were trying to identify his body, a police source said on Saturday.

Separately, police found five bombs during another raid on a house in Bekasi near the capital Jakarta, the source close to the investigation told Reuters.

The source said a man suspected to be Top was shot dead during a raid on a workshop in Temanggung in Central Java and they were trying to identify the body.

"He was shot dead at the workshop in Temanggung," the source said, adding that the raids in the area had led police to the house in Bekasi where bombs had been found.

Another police source said police were still trying to defuse several bombs at the house.

A police spokesman declined to immediately comment, but said there would be news conference in Bekasi shortly.

On Friday evening, police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said two men had been arrested in a workshop in a market in Temanggung and had led police to house in the same area where there had been a shoot out with suspected militants.

Police from Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit Detachment 88 were still surrounding the remote house in rice fields where three to four suspected militants were believed to be holed up.

The Malaysian-born militant Top is a prime suspect thought to be behind the near simultaneous suicide attacks on two luxury Jakarta hotels last month.

The July 17 attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton killed nine and wounded 53, including Indonesians and foreigners, and broke a four-year lull when there had been no major attacks after police had arrested hundreds of militants.

Intelligence officials say Top and fellow Malaysian Azahari Husin, a bomb maker who was killed during a police raid in 2005, were leaders in militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), blamed for a series of bombing attacks around Southeast Asia since 2002.

Police have focused much of their search on Central Java, where Top is believed to have a network of sympathizers to help shelter him.

Top is believed to have planned previous bomb attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004, and in Bali in 2005 -- attacks designed to scare off foreign tourists and businesses so that JI could create a caliphate across Muslim-dominated areas of Southeast Asia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has vowed to track down the bombers and if it is confirmed that Top has been killed or captured it would be major coup for security forces and could help reduce the chance of further attacks.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Telly Nathalia; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Jon Hemming)