DNA tests confirm that notorious Southeast Asia terrorist leader Noordin Top was killed during a shootout earlier this week with Indonesian security forces, police announced Saturday.
Noordin was initially identified by his finger prints shortly after the deadly confrontation, which took place Thursday at a terrorist hide-out in central Java.
National Police spokesperson Nanan Sukarna said DNA tests confirmed Noordin's identity.
"There's no longer any doubt," Sukarna told reporters gathered for a news conference.
Sukarna also displayed a photograph of Noordin, taken after his death, that showed him with a thick beard. The image was a stark contrast from wanted posters of him, in which he appears clean-shaven.
According to Sukarna, authorities are arranging to have Noordin's body returned to his family in Malaysia "as soon as possible."
Authorities in Indonesia have had their sights set on Noordin for years.
Police say he was the mastermind behind bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 and 2005, as well as attacks last July on two hotels in Jakarta. The bombings killed more than 200 people in total, many of them foreigners.
Police had thought they killed Noordin last month after a 16-hour battle in another terrorist hide-out in central Java. However, DNA tests proved that Noordin was not among the dead.
Noordin, a Malaysian national, joined terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in 1998, after training in the southern Philippines.
A disagreement over targeting civilians led Noordin to break away and form Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad.
Noordin's goal was the creation of a Muslim state that encompassed Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
Regional leaders congratulated Indonesian authorities, and said Noordin's death would strike a blow to terror groups throughout Southeast Asia.
"This is a very significant result," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in an interview Friday on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"This man has been a mass murderer," he said. "He's been responsible for the murder of Australians."
With files from The Associated Press
