Australia welcomes Azahari's reported death in gunfight

Australia welcomes Azahari's reported death in gunfight

Agence France-Presse, Sydney, Australia

Australia on Thursday welcomed a report that one of Asia's top
terror suspects, Azahari Husin, was believed to have blown
himself up after being cornered by Indonesian police.

"The news, if it is finally confirmed about Azahari, is very
good news," Prime Minister John Howard said in a television
interview.

Australia has accused Azahari, a Malaysian from the al-Qaeda-
linked Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) militant network and known as the
"Demolition Man", of being behind several bombings that have
killed Australians.

He and fellow Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top are believed to
have masterminded the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings which killed a
total of 92 Australians, as well as the bombing of the Marriott
Hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta last year.

"It doesn't mean that JI is crippled but it does mean that
somebody who is believed to have been behind the two Bali
attacks, the Marriott attack and the attack on the Australian
embassy in Jakarta may well have been taken out of the equation,"
Howard said.

"If that is confirmed then that is a huge advance. But we're
going to be embroiled in this struggle for years into the
future."

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also said it would be "good
news" if Azahari was dead.

"Noordin Top and Azahari have been the two keys to these
bombings by what we broadly define as Jamaah Islamiyah in
Indonesia, so to take either or both of them out is a very
important step forward," Downer told national radio.

The Malaysian bomb expert apparently triggered a bomb killing
himself and two others after police moved in on a villa in the
East Java hill resort town of Batu, near Malang, on Wednesday.

Australian police have been helping the Indonesians track
Azahari since the first Bali bombings and had a team close to the
scene of the shootout that ended in his death, Police
Commissioner Mick Keelty said.

"Certainly facially he's been identified by (Indonesian) Gen.
Gorries Mere, who's been heading the terrorist tracking team for
three years," Mick Keelty said.

"Obviously we're very concerned that other explosives are
inside the house, so all that forensic work will be done over the
next day or two," Keelty said.

"We'll set about working with the Indonesian national police
who have done a fantastic job here."

Attorney General Philip Ruddock said confirmation of Husin's
death would be a blow to Jamaah Islamiyah.

"But one ought not to be, I think, blase about these matters.
One can't assume that those that are left won't still have some
residual capacity to continue the sort of activities we've seen
them engaged in," he said.