ONE of Asia's most wanted men, master terrorist Noordin Top, has escaped an early morning police raid in which two Islamic militants were shot dead, including a senior aide.The Malaysian-born Top, nicknamed the "Moneyman" and blamed for a string of terrorist attacks including both Bali bombings and the 2004 suicide bomb attack on Australia's Jakarta Embassy, fled the house in Binangun, Central Java, before elite anti-terror police closed in.
A senior police officer with the Detachment 88 anti-terror squad said police had shot dead two militants named Abdul Hadi, alias Bambang, and Jabir.
Another man named Solahudin surrendered, while a courier for Top named Mustafirin was captured in the town of Temanggung.
Jabir was a senior aide to Top and was the cousin of another senior Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, who was trained in explosives use by al-Qaeda on the Afghan-Pakistani border.
"Two militants have been shot dead among five men cornered in the house," the officer, who could not be named, said.
"These men are an important catch."
Indonesia's chief of police General Sutanto later confirmed Top – said to be a master of disguise – had escaped before the raid began about 5.20am local time (8.20am AEST).
Top, aged in his 40s, is Indonesia's most wanted man and is said to be an expert at recruiting militants into becoming suicide bombers and collecting funds for terror attacks.
His bombmaker partner Azahari Husin was killed in a hail of gunfire last November after police tracked him down to a rented house in the East Java mountain town of Batu.
Along with Azahari, Top had reportedly forged a new militant group of fighters known as Thoifah Muqatilah, or the combat unit.
He is linked to terror attacks which together have killed more than 245 people, including 92 Australians.
Police originally thought they had cornered Top in a house near a railway station.
Local residents reported gunfire and blasts coming from a cordoned off area where he was believed to be holed up as a helicopter circled overhead.
Top has been the focus of an intense manhunt involving both Indonesian and Australian federal police after escaping a dragnet set up in the wake of Azahari's shooting.
A police investigation of Azahari's house uncovered a video in which a balaclava-wearing Top warned western countries, especially Australia, of more suicide bomb attacks.
"We repeat that America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies," he said while waving his right finger threateningly in the air.
He made particular mention of Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"We especially remind Australia that you, Downer and Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and misfortune and mujahideen terror," he said.
"Know that as long as you continue to colonise the land of Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslims then you too will feel our intimidation and terror."
Top has narrowly escaped several police raids, including another early morning assault in 2003 in the West Java capital Bandung.
Recent intelligence suggests that Top is still recruiting people to carry out more suicide attacks and remains in close contact with jailed extremists.
A number of Muslim militants linked to Top have been arrested in the past couple of months, but Indonesian authorities and western governments say he and his followers are still a threat despite arrests and the killing of Azahari.