JAKARTA, Indonesia — Azahari Husin, one of Southeast Asia's most notorious terrorists, ended life like most of his victims: amid the debris and devastation of a suicide bombing.
Azahari, the target of a three-year manhunt in Indonesia, was finally trapped by police in a house in East Java. As police closed in, he reached for the detonator on the explosives belt he was wearing but was stopped from blowing himself up when an officer shot him in the chest and legs.
Moments later, Azahari's accomplice, Arman, detonated his own suicide belt, blowing himself to pieces, knocking the roof off the house and tearing Azahari in two.
"The condition of Azahari's corpse is that it was severed around the legs and torso," Gen. Sutanto, the national police chief, told reporters Thursday. "He was not able to reach the button because officers shot him first, but the other one was able to commit a suicide bombing."
Initial reports had incorrectly said that Azahari blew himself up.
Azahari's death Wednesday in the city of Batu brought to an end the career of a ruthless technician who specialized in making bombs that have killed 250 people over the last five years, many of them Australian tourists. Known as the "Demolition Man," Azahari also trained other militants to make bombs.
The death of one of the top operatives of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant network, won praise from Indonesian officials and Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who called it "good news."
But some experts warned that the Islamic group, which has close ties to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, still had the technical skill and operational ability to mount attacks in the region.
Police continued to search for Noordin Mohammed Top, a Malaysian who collaborated closely with Azahari in staging major terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 that killed 202 people and the restaurant bombings there last month that killed 23. Five suicide bombers were among those who died in the two attacks.
While Azahari was known for his technical skill, Top was the one who set the agenda and enlisted followers willing to give their lives for militant Islam.
"Of the two, Top was hands down the leader," said Ken Conboy, a security consultant who recently wrote "The Second Front," a book about Jemaah Islamiah. "Azahari was the loyal follower and tactician who knew how to put together the bomb. Top is the more dangerous of the two because he is the one who recruits people."
