xs
xsm
sm
md
lg

Indonesia police: bomb attacks have JI hallmark

เผยแพร่:   โดย: MGR Online

<br><FONT color=#3366ff>A member of Indonesian National Youths Committee gives flowers to journalists in front of Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta July 19, 2009. Nine people died and 53 were wounded in Fridays attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, according to police. The two hotels were popular with business executives and diplomats and considered to be among the most secure buildings in the capital. (REUTERS/Supri)</font></b>

Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:36am EDT
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police said on Sunday that deadly attacks on two Jakarta hotels used the same methods and equipment as previous bombings by the militant Jemaah Islamiah group.

Investigators were working to reconstruct the face of one of the suspected suicide bombers from Friday's attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton that killed nine people and wounded 53.

The two hotels were popular with foreign business executives and diplomats and considered to be among the most secure buildings in the capital.

The blasts left some bodies so badly mutilated they were difficult to identify and two decapitated corpses were believed by police to belong to the suicide bombers.

"We are trying to reconstruct the face of one of the heads we found to see if it matches the guest from 1808. We will ask witnesses and receptionists, is it him?" police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a news conference.
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>Indonesian colleagues of Tim Mackay of New Zealand mourn as his body is removed from Darmais hospitals grief house in Jakarta, to be transported to his country July 19, 2009. Mackay, chief executive of cement maker Holcim Indonesia, was one of several executives attending a CastleAsia Group breakfast at one of the luxury Indonesian hotels that was bombed on Friday and died in the blasts. REUTERS/Crack Palinggi)</font></b>
Police said the bombers had checked in to the Marriott as paying guests on Wednesday and had assembled the bombs in their room. A third bomb was found and defused in a laptop computer bag in room 1808.

Soekarna said the attacks bore the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the radical militant Islamist group responsible for a string of deadly attacks in Jakarta and on the resort island of Bali that seemed to end in 2005.

"Of course they are from the same school as Jemaah Islamiah," he said.

"The method, the equipment used is the same as both bombs in Bali and the one found in Cilacap," he added, referring to the Bali attacks in 2002 and 2005, and bomb equipment police recently found during raids in Cilacap, Central Java.
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>Employees of the Ritz-Carlton hotel undergo a security check before entering the hotel in Jakarta July 19, 2009. Bomb blasts ripped through the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in the heart of Indonesias capital on Friday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in attacks the president said badly hurt confidence in the country. (REUTERS/Supri)</font></br>
IDENTITIES NOT KNOWN

Speculation over the identity of the bombers has been rife and some newspapers have put forward a name for one and suggested one could be a woman, but police said that it did not know their identity and that they believed the bombers were men.

"We don't know the names of any of the bombers," said another police spokesman, Sulistyo Ishak.

Police also said they had no evidence that the bombers had used a staff tunnel connecting the adjacent U.S.-owned hotels.

Ansyaad Mbai, head of the anti-terrorism desk at Indonesia's security ministry, said the attacks may be linked to a fugitive Malaysian-born militant
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>Vanessa Verity (L), wife of Australian Nathan Verity, covers her face as she is accompanied by a relative after arriving at a hospital in Jakarta July 19, 2009 to identify his body. Verity was killed when a bomb blast hit a luxury hotel in Jakarta on Friday. Suicide bombers struck the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, two hotels popular with businessmen and diplomats in Jakartas main business district, during breakfast on Friday. (REUTERS/Stringer)</font></b>
Noordin Top, who is believed to have broken away from JI to form a more radical wing.

Mbai was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara that the government was stepping up efforts to find Noordin Top, who has been linked to a string of attacks, as a priority.

Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamic militancy at the International Crisis Group, also said that the attacks had the hallmarks of Noordin Top.
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>Police patrol Kuta beach in Bali July 19, 2009 following bomb blasts in Jakarta on Friday. Indonesian police on Saturday put the death toll at nine and 53 were injured. (REUTERS/Murdani Usman) </font></b>
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith (R) walks with Australian ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer after inspecting the damage to the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta July 19, 2009. Investigators were sifting through the two bomb-damaged luxury Indonesian hotels on Saturday, for clues to those behind suicide attacks t. (REUTERS/Supri)</font></b>
"The most important hallmark is the suicide bombing as a method of attack and also the targeting of iconic Western symbols, both of those are associated more with Noordin than with mainstream Jemaah Islamiah," Jones told Reuters in an interview.

Security was increased at shopping malls and hotels across Jakarta at the weekend.

"I feel safe. The bombs have already exploded. Its safer just after they go off," said Australian Aaron Lumsden, 15, who was eating lunch at the Bellagio mall in central Jakarta.
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>A boy takes a picture of his family in front of the damaged Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta July 19, 2009. Nine people died and 53 were wounded in Fridays attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, according to police. (REUTERS/Supri) </font></b>
<br><FONT color=#3366ff>A boy places a flower in front of Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta July 19, 2009. Nine people died and 53 were wounded in Fridays attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, according to police. (REUTERS/Supri) </font></b>
The Four Seasons Hotel in Jakarta was briefly evacuated on Sunday morning after a bomb scare, although guests were later allowed to return after a search, a receptionist said.

The casualties of Friday's attacks included citizens of Indonesia, the United States, Australia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Canada, Norway, Japan and India.

The blasts are a severe blow for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected earlier this month in a landslide victory on the back of strong growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

(Additional reporting by Sara Webb and Karima Anjani; Editing by Alex Richardson)
กำลังโหลดความคิดเห็น