19 July 2016•Update: 23 July 2016
By Ainur Rohmah
TUBAN, Indonesia
Indonesia's police chief has confirmed that one of the two militants killed in a gunfight with police is very likely to be the country's most wanted man, Abu Wardah Santoso.
"From testimony from police and other witnesses who recognized him, we are nearly 95 percent he is Santoso," Tito Karnavian told reporters from the country's presidential palace complex on Tuesday, according to kompas.com.
He added that police still have to ensure his identity through DNA testing, but that was presently taking place.
He confirmed that another man shot dead with Santoso was a follower named Muchtar.
Since January, thousands of soldiers and police had been engaged in an operation to capture Santoso, the leader of an umbrella militant group called the East Indonesia Mujahideen which has pledged allegiance to Daesh.
A spokesman for Central Sulawesi provincial police earlier Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that security forces were expected to bring the two bodies to a local hospital in the afternoon.
"It took several hours to carry the bodies from the forest because the terrain is quite difficult," adjunct commissioner Hari Suprapto said.
The men were killed in a shootout late Monday afternoon, which police say broke out when two men among a group of five “suspicious” people exchanged gunfire with them in the mountains of Tambarana village in troubled Poso town.
Two women and another man reportedly fled, and police recovered an M16 assault rifle at the scene.
Late Tuesday, Karnavian swore that a military operation to catch the 19 remaining members of the East Indonesian Mujahidin in Poso, Central Sulawesi, would continue.
The Head of the State Intelligence Agency warned that security forces were also on standby to prepare for ant potential backlash from Santoso followers
"We are prepared for them," Sutiyoso said, as quoted by kompas.com.
Police have been hunting Santoso for five years for masterminding the shooting of a police officer in the provincial capital Palu in 2011.
At the end of 2012, Santoso and another leading militant, Daeng Koro, declared the establishment of the East Indonesia Mujahideen, which has since been recruiting people from across Indonesia and providing military training in the Biru Mountains.
Since January, Operation Tinombala has besieged Santoso and his group, cutting off communication between them and their sympathizers and families, as well as disrupting their supply lines.
Police estimate that the number of group members has dropped from more than 40, with some followers surrendering amid intensified pressure.
Since a Jan. 14 terrorist attack in central Jakarta -- in which four civilians and four Daesh-affiliated assailants were killed -- the government has tightened security and focused its operation to catch Santoso.
In March, the United States included Santoso on its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
