Azahari Blown to Pieces or ...?

Antara news agency reported numerous explosions at the house where Azahari was hiding. It was a joint military-police operations.

The police chief who conducted the raid on Dr Azahari’s villa in Batu told international reporters that he saw the bodies of seven terrorists. The reporter mentioned that none had been identified yet.

However local reporters insisted that Azahari was among the seven dead militants. A number of Indon TV stations laid claim that Malaysian Azahari bin Husin was killed in the shoot-out, although there was no source for their reports.

Karni Ilyas, a jounalist who went into the house with the police anti-terror unit said Azahari did blow himself up on Wednesday (sorry, not Tuesday as I had incorrectly mentioned in my previous post) after being cornered by the police at the villa. Ilyas averred that two Jakarta members of the anti-terrorist unit could recognize Azahari’s face, even though his body was in pieces.

Gorries Mere, the national detective deputy chief, supported Ilyas assertion, and said that his men in the field reported that Azahari was among the dead (or at least his face was).

However, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was more cautious, saying that it was not clear if Azahari had been among the seven killed. He confirmed intelligence showed that Azahari was hiding in the raided house, but whether he was killed still is uncertain.

Hmmm, maybe Azahari is like the elusive Osama bin Laden, or is the Indonesian authority hedging, though for what purpose, still remains to be seen.

Related:
BREAKING NEWS - DR AZAHARI COMMITTED SUICIDE