Indonesian president confirms bombmaker Dulmatin is dead

Sydney - Dulmatin, who is alleged to have made the bombs that killed 202 people in Bali nightclubs in 2002, has been killed in a police anti-terrorism raid near Jakarta, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono confirmed Wednesday.

Yudhoyono made the announcement at a lunch in his honour at Parliament House in Canberra while on a visit to Australia.

"I have great news to announce to you," he said. "After a successful police raid against a terrorist hiding out in Jakarta, ... we can confirm that one of those killed was Mr Dulmatin, one of the top South-East Asian terrorists that we've been looking for."

Dulmatin, a 39-year-old Indonesian said to be trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was shot dead Tuesday in a raid on an internet cafe, one of three people killed in two raids near the Indonesian capital.

Most of the people killed in the 2002 Bali bombings were foreign tourists, 88 of them Australians.

DPA