The mastermind of the Bali bombing have been killed.

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The mastermind of the Bali bombing have been killed.

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The most wanted man in Indonesia, Noordin Mohammed Top, was probably killed by a police officer during a raid by anti-terrorist forces two months after a double suicide bombing that killed nine people in Jakarta.

Noordin Top would be part of one of four men killed in a house stormed by the police to 0700 (0000 GMT) after a siege lasting several hours.

It has not been formally identified the body as it would have but was decapitated and severely damaged by an explosion that followed the storm.

But an official of the anti-terrorist force has said some "90%" it was indeed the man who for years eluded the Indonesian police.

The body was taken to Jakarta where he was to be discussed during the day for his identification, police said.

The observers remained cautious, however, since the death of Noordin Top had already been announced, erroneously, by the Indonesian media during a previous police operation in August.

Nationality Malaysian, Noordin Top, 41, is considered one of the "brains" of the wave of attacks attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah network have hit the country earlier this decade. The deadliest killed 202 people, mostly tourists on the island of Bali in 2002.

After four years of quiet, stalking the Malaysian had flared up after the double suicide bombing that killed nine people, including two bombers and six foreigners, in the Marriott and Ritz Carlton Jakarta July 17.

Since then, police have dismantled part of its network, killing three militants and arresting a particular religious suspected of organizing the financing of the attacks.

The operation on Thursday targeted a house in the midst of plantations in a village near Solo, a town in central Java island considered a stronghold of radical Islam.

Grenades and explosives have been discovered in this modest house, rented six months ago by a man and his pregnant wife.

The tenant was killed along with two suspected accomplices of Noordin Top, Bagus Budi Pranoto, aka Urwah and Maruto, according to a police officer.

If these deaths were confirmed, it would deal a severe blow to the terrorist network organized by the Malaysian. "Maruto is a specialist in the manufacture of bombs and Urwah recruitment," said Noor Huda Ismail, an expert on terrorism in South-Eastern Asia.

Before the twin bombings of July in Jakarta, Indonesia has succeeded in recent years, no longer appear as a high-risk countries after terrorists struck heavy blows to the Islamist movements with the clandestine support of the United States and the Australia.

Resorting to violence is condemned by the vast majority of the 235 million people in the largest Muslim country in the world.

But it is promoted by a fringe ultra-minority inspired by the Salafi ideology, which would be funded, according to experts, by movements of the Middle East.

A group with the name of "Al Qaeda Indonesia" had claimed responsibility late July on a blog supposedly written by Noordin Top, the twin bombings in Jakarta. The authenticity of the message has not been confirmed by police.