Florist 'who aided bombers' died in Java

Explosives used in last month's terrorist attacks on two Jakarta hotels were
smuggled inside by a hotel florist who disguised the weapons as flowers, police say.
Indonesian police on Wednesday confirmed the 37-year-old florist named Ibrohim,
alias Boim, was the man killed in a raid on a farmhouse in Central Java at the
weekend - not mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top.
Police initially believed they had finally managed to kill Noordin, the
Malaysian-born extremist who leads a hardline splinter group of terror outfit Jemaah
Islamiah (JI).
Noordin, who has been on the run for seven years, is the suspected mastermind of
last month's suicide attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels that killed
seven bystanders, including three Australians.
Authorities believe he also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott, a 2004
attack on Australia's embassy in Jakarta and the 2005 Bali bombings.
But DNA tests revealed the dead man was actually Ibrohim, the "inside man" who
helped plan and stage the brazen attacks on July 17.
Police on Wednesday revealed it was Ibrohim, who worked as a florist at the
Ritz-Carlton, who smuggled explosives in through the Marriott's loading bay the day
before the attacks.
Surveillance footage shows he packed the explosives inside flower boxes.
The next day, just hours before the blasts, Ibrohim escorted the Ritz-Carlton bomber
- Nana Ikhwan Maulana - into the hotel through an employee entrance. It's believed
Nana was carrying more explosives.
Police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said investigators believed security measures at the
front of the hotels had been adequate.
"The problem was out the back, at the loading dock," Sukarna said.
"It must be tightened."
Police believe it was Ibrohim who suggested Noordin target the hotels, in particular
the regular Friday morning meeting at the Marriott of Western business executives.
Ibrohim provided Noordin and the other terrorists with details of the hotels'
layouts and security systems in the months leading up the attacks, police said.
He escorted one of the bombers around the hotels on July 8.
Police say Ibrohim was recruited into JI in 2000 by Noordin's right-hand man
Saifuddin Zuhri, who was arrested in June.
He became part of an operational cell in 2005, the same year he started work at the
flower shop in the Marriott, where he worked for three months before transferring to
the Ritz-Carlton.
Police believe Ibrohim was being groomed to launch a suicide attack against
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later this month.