Reports of the death of Noordin Mohammed Top may have been greatly exaggerated last month, but it appears South-East Asia's most dangerous terrorist is finally dead after a police raid on a hideout in central Java on Thursday. A positive DNA analysis has yet to be made but, based on photographs and fingerprint evidence, Indonesian police are certain they have their man.

Noordin, once a key figure in the Jemaah Islamiah militant group, is suspected of being implicated in every significant terrorist attack in Indonesia since 2002, including two separate bombings in Bali, the bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and, just last month, the bombings in Jakarta of two luxury hotels.

Many Javanese attributed magical powers to Noordin, so successful was he at evading capture by police. Noordin did appear to lead a charmed life, but not because of divine providence. He was constantly on the move and took great care to frustrate official electronic surveillance efforts by rarely using mobile phones. More importantly, he was able to rely on a network of sympathisers who were willing to shield him and act as couriers for messages to his cells.

Why some Javanese would shelter a man responsible for the deaths of scores of Indonesians (as well as Westerners) is baffling, given that the great bulk of Muslims there adhere to a moderate form of Islam. The International Crisis Group's Sidney Jones says that those who sustained Noordin did not necessarily agree with his violent tactics, but believed his motives (the creation of a caliphate, or common Muslim state, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines) were pure.

Born in Malaysia and educated at a boarding school run by a cleric and founder of Jemaah Islamiah, Abdullah Sungkar, Noordin joined the group in 1998 after training in the southern Philippines. He fled to Indonesia after Malaysian police cracked down on Muslim extremists after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. After a split within Jemaah Islamiah about the use of violent means to pursue political ends (and the drawbacks of targeting Indonesian civilians), Noordin formed a more violent splinter group, Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad, which campaigned to implement Osama bin Laden's fatwa on killing Westerners.

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