Indonesian police have shot dead a man suspected to be leading Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top during raids in Central Java.
Police sources say they are trying to identify his body.
Mr Top is suspected to be the mastermind behind last month's suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which killed nine people and wounded 53, as well as a number of other bombings in Jakarta and Bali.
Mr Top, who was born in Johor, southern Malaysia, became a key figure in militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and is suspected of planning attacks on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.
He formed a violent splinter group in 2003 after his hardline stance on violence put him at odds with other JI members.
His partner Husin was killed in a police raid in 2005, but Mr Top remained on the run.
While the mainstream JI has backed away from supporting violence, at least on Indonesian soil, Mr Top has not.
Helped by his professional background, analysts say he became an expert in planning attacks, knowing how to find safe houses, undertake surveillance and mix explosives.
Raid
Noordin Mohammed Top was reportedly killed at his Indonesian hideout after a 17-hour siege by police special forces.
Local television station Metro TV said he had been killed in the operation, saying only they believed he was one of around four occupants of the remote farmhouse in Central Java.
An AFP reporter said he saw at least three bodies taken from the house, after hours of heavy gunfire and explosions.
Police surrounded the house yesterday afternoon after arresting two people at a nearby market who were reported to be relatives of the tenant of the property.
Elite police carrying assault rifles entered the hideout in Central Java after it had been besieged as part of investigations into last month's twin suicide bombings on hotels in Jakarta.
