Jakarta. Ali Ahmad, also known as Ali Kalora, the notorious leader of an Islamist terror group East Indonesia Mujahidin, or MIT, has died in a shootout with the police's anti-terror squad in Parigi Moutong district, Central Sulawesi on Saturday, a top security official confirmed.

Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD said the National Police anti-terror squad Densus 88 killed the notorious terrorist leader along with one of his followers.   

"The leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) Ali Kalora, who once run havoc with a series of sadistic men slaughters in Central Sulawesi, was shot dead today by Densus AT/88 after being on the run for almost a year," Mahfud tweeted on Saturday. 

"He was shot with one of his men named Ikrimah," he said. 

Insp. Gen. Argo Yuwono, the head of the public relations division of the National Police, said earlier that the police headquarters had received information about Ali Kalora's death. 

The police headquarters was still waiting for more information from the Central Sulawesi Police regarding the chronology of the shootout, Argo told Antara news agency.  

The gunfight occurred at around 05:20 p.m. in the hills near Astina village in Parigi Moutong district, Central Sulawesi.

The shootout was the latest in almost a year of a chase involving the police anti-terror squad with the help of the Indonesian Military under the Madago Raya Task Force. Two months ago, the task force shot three MIT members dead in two separate gunfights on July 11 and 17.

With Ali and Ikrimah's deaths, the task force estimated that the terror group force had been reduced to four, including skar alias Jaid alias Pak Guru, Nae alias Galuh alias Mukhlas, Rukli, and Suhardin alias Hasan Pranata.

MIT was a terror organization based mainly in Central Sulawesi, tied to the Southeast Asia-based transnational terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah. After MIT charismatic commander Santoso was killed in a police raid in July 2016, Ali Kalora emerged as the group's new leader. 

Last November, the terrorists brutally killed a Christian family of four in The Salvation Army church's outpost in Lemban Tongoa village in Sigi district in Central Sulawesi. Apart from burning the family's houses, the terrorist group mutilated the body of two victims and beheaded one of them.