Indonesia's Most Wanted Militant killed in shootout

Indonesia's most wanted Islamic militant was killed in a gunbattle with security forces, a top minister said Tuesday, in a victory for the government's counterterrorism campaign that further tightens the vise on a dwindling band of extremists in the jungles of Sulawesi island.

Abu Wardah Santoso was one of two militants killed in the shootout Monday, Coordinating Minister for Security, Political and Legal Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told reporters. The other was an extremist known as Mochtar, not Santoso's deputy Basri, as police had initially thought.

Santoso, who headed the East Indonesia Mujahideen militant group that in 2014 claimed allegiance to the ISIS group, had escaped capture for more than five years.