Scores killed, at least 500 wounded in bomb attacks in Baghdad - washingtonpost.com

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By Anthony Shadid
Sunday, October 25, 2009 9:16 AM

BAGHDAD -- Twin car bombs targeted two government buildings in downtown Baghdad Sunday, wrecking pillars of the state's authority and cutting like a scythe through snarled traffic during the morning rush hour. The government said at least 132 people were killed and 520 wounded in one of the worst attacks in Baghdad.

The first bomb struck an intersection near the Justice Ministry and the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works at around 10:15 a.m. on the first day of the Iraqi work week, when streets are always more crowded. Less than a minute later, a second blast targeted the Baghdad provincial headquarters, draped in a sign heralding its renovation.

The bombings bore the hallmarks of an attack Aug. 19 that targeted the Finance and Foreign Ministries, also killing more than 100 people. Unlike the carnage unleashed by attacks in crowded mosques, restaurants and markets, aimed at igniting sectarian strife, these blasts appeared to rely on a distinct political calculus, designed to undermine faith in the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has staked his political future on restoring a semblance of security to the war-wrecked country.

"This is part of the struggle over power in Iraq, and Iraqis will have to sacrifice themselves for it," said Mohammed al-Rubai, an opponent of Maliki who serves as a member of the Baghdad provincial council. "Everyone in charge shares responsibility."

Hours after the attack, Maliki visited the scene. As in August, he blamed members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

"The cowardly acts of terrorism, which occurred today, must not weaken the resolution of Iraqis to continue their journey and to fight the followers of the fallen regime, the Baathists and al-Qaeda," he said in a statement released by his office. The culprits, he added, "have their black hands stained by the blood of the Iraqi people."

The blasts, which the Interior Ministry said were carried out by suicide bombers, detonated under a pale gray sky, shattering windows more than a mile away. Broken water mains sent water coursing through the street, strewn with debris. Pools of water mixed with blood gathered along the curbs, ashened detritus floating on the surface.

Cars caught in traffic jams were turned into tombs, the bodies of passengers incinerated inside. The smell of diesel mixed with the stench of burning flesh.

"Bodies were hurled into the air," said Mohammed Fadhil, a 19-year-old bystander. "I saw women and children cut in half." He looked down at a curb smeared with blood. "What's the sin that those people commited? They are so innocent."

Ali Hassan, an employee at the provincial headquarters, said the building was filled with women with their children seeking compensation for past terrorist actions.

"Now they've become the victims again," he said.

The cacophony of destruction ensued after the blasts. The thud of helicopters intersected with the noon call to prayer, as rescue workers, shouting at each other, frantically pulled charred bodies from crumpled cars. Broken glass littered the sidewalk like ice in a hailstorm, scraping under the shuffling of feet. Bulldozers dragged the carcasses of vehicle across the pavement, then deposited them randomly.

"Bring blankets! Bring blankets!" Iraqi relief officials shouted at colleagues, as they trudged through the flooded streets. "There are more bodies!"

"Clear the street!" other police shouted at bystanders who had gathered.

On the sidewalk, wet corpses were covered in checkered brown blankets. Others were sheathed into gray body bags, then dragged through the coursing water.

"What kind of improvement is there? None," said Riyadh Jumaa, 32, who fled with his 3-year-old son in his arms. When the second blast struck, both were hurled to the ground. "The ministers, the officers, they're sitting in their chairs doing nothing."

Like the attacks Aug. 19, the blasts Sunday seemed to have their desired effect, underlining the government's inability to protect the capital, the seat of its authority.

In the wake of the earlier attacks, Maliki's government arrested several army and police officers, accusing them of negligence. Officials also promptly purported to have detained the culprits, and they aired a video of a man who confessed to organizing the attacks. But U.S. officials later cast doubt on the veracity of the arrests or the confession.

At the time, Maliki faced criticism that his administration had prematurely scaled back security measures in Baghdad just days before. His detractors have also lambasted him for being overconfident in his security forces' readiness as American forces pull back from the cities in preparation of a larger U.S. withdrawal by next August.

The attacks Sunday seem sure to accentuate doubts in Maliki's ability to maintain security, the cornerstone of his party's campaign in national elections in January.

At the scene, bystanders grew angry as high-ranking police and army officers visited the devastated ministries, surrounded by security details of dozens of men.

"Look! 200 just to protect him!" shouted Ahmed Abed. "Who has trust in the government," he went on. "Why should I have trust? Should I trust the son of a dog?"

In front of the provincial headquarters, Iman Barazinji, a Kurdish member of the provincial headquarters, made the same complaint, echoing popular frustration at the inability of Baghdad's ubiquitous checkpoints to stop cars laden with explosives and at the caravans that escort officials ensconced in offices fortified by blast walls.

"We don't want anyone to hide behind the walls any longer," she shouted.

Correspondent Ernesto Londoño and special correspondents Aziz Alwan and Qais Mizher contributed to this report.

US pullout in doubt after day of slaughter on streets of Baghdad

Extremists struck at the Iraqi Government with a wave of bombings and mortar attacks, killing at least 95 people and injuring more than 560 and raising new doubts about the withdrawal of US soldiers from the country.

The bombings were directed against the main centres of power, including the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, health, education and housing, as well as the parliament and cabinet buildings.

A lorry packed with explosives that went off within 30ft of the Foreign Ministry is reported to have killed up to 59 people and injured 250. The ministry’s compound wall was flattened and the ten-storey building all but destroyed. Cars and buildings in the vicinity were devastated and houses five miles away were shaken.

The bomb left a crater in the road 10 feet deep and 25 feet wide; it was filled with charred bodies. The heat of the ensuing fire melted debris into the torn asphalt. Dozens of buildings were damaged, including the Rasheed Hotel, on the edge of the fortified green zone. John Tipple, a British solicitor, said: “The windows were blown out — even the door frames went. If I had been in my room I would have been seriously injured or worse. Everything is locked down now. Nobody can move anywhere.”

No group has said that it was behind the attack but it is likely to have been the work of Sunni radicals trying to undermine the Shia-led Government, to reignite sectarian warfare of two years ago. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, said: “These attacks represent a reaction to the opening of streets and bridges and the lifting of barriers inside the residential areas.”

The date of the attacks was symbolic: today was the sixth anniversary of the bombing of the United Nations compound in Baghdad, killing 22 people, including the UN special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. That atrocity prompted the UN to suspend its operations in Iraq and signalled a deadly increase in the insurgency.

Since US troops began to pull out of the cities, a rise in attacks has led to fears of a resurgence of violence before the elections to be held by the end of January.

In a reference to the party of Saddam Hussein, Major-General Qassim Atta, the spokesman for the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad operations, said “We accuse the Baathist alliance of executing these terrorist operations.”

Today Baghdad was again enveloped by chaos and fear. Abu Mazen, a 39-year-old police officer, said: “I came home and found all my neighbours crying and my wife crying, then I saw the kids. They were injured in the heads and hands.”

A bystander, Abu Mohammed, 45, said: “I saw a body fly through the air and land next to me. I saw 40 burnt bodies being taken out of the Foreign Ministry — they needed an industrial vehicle with a big shovel to remove them. The bodies were still burning and we poured water on them. There is blood everywhere.”

A woman staggered past him outside the Foreign Ministry, bleeding from the head but insistent that she did not need help. Apartment blocks hundreds of metres away showed cracks in the walls.

Faris, a 28-year-old resident, said: “This is the biggest explosion we have seen since the invasion. I fear we are returning to the bad old days.”

Like many others he blamed careless Iraqi security guards who replaced US soldiers: “How can you drive a lorry filled with explosives right up to the entrance of the ministry?”

Blast walls that might have limited the damage were removed two months ago as part of “normalisation” by the Iraqi Government after US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities on June 30.

Many Killed in Russia Bomb Attack

At least 20 people have been killed by a bomb at a police station in Russia's southern republic of Ingushetia.

The suspected suicide attack in Nazran, Ingushetia's main city, injured more than 60 people, including children.

The republic borders Chechnya and has seen a spate of shootings, bombings and other attacks on police and government.

The Ingush leader blamed militants, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked Ingushetia's interior minister, saying the attack had been preventable.

"The police must protect the people and the police must also be able to defend themselves," Mr Medvedev said.

Escalating clashes

Monday's bomb attack was described as the deadliest strike in months in Ingushetia.

The explosion gutted the building as police lined up for a shift change.

ANALYSIS
Sarah Rainsford, BBC News This attack is part of a recent surge in violence in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region of Russia. The large-scale separatist conflict that ravaged Chechnya has now ended after 15 years. In April, the Russian president declared Chechnya to be stable enough to ease security restrictions, and lower the number of Russian troops.

But the insurgency in the Caucasus has gradually changed form into an Islamist uprising, and spread beyond Chechnya's borders. Militants have targeted government officials and the security forces in particular, with a combination of deadly gun battles and suicide attacks.

President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was appointed by the Kremlin to head the autonomous republic of Ingushetia - and arrived vowing to end the violence and combat serious corruption. He's still recovering from an attempt on his life.

Images from Nazran showed scenes of devastation within the compound, with nearby homes also badly damaged and burned-out cars strewn nearby.

The bomber was reported to have rammed his vehicle into the gates of the police compound as officers were reporting for inspection, government spokesman Kaloi Akhilgov said.

"Practically all the cars and buildings in the yard of the police headquarters were completely destroyed," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The bomber was assumed to be among the dead, although this could not be confirmed.

Mr Akghilov told the AFP news agency that all of the dead were police, but 11 children were among those injured. Many of those hurt were living in residential buildings adjacent to the police station, he said.

Many of the injured were said to be in a serious condition. They were taken to hospitals in Nazran, but Mr Akghilov said the authorities were struggling to cope with the casualties.

"We have not had such an attack for a long time," he said, adding that hospitals did not have enough blood to treat the injured.

Much of the violence in Ingushetia has echoed the continuing unrest in Chechnya, with escalating clashes in the past year between pro-Russian security forces and armed militants.

Human rights activists and opposition politicians in Ingushetia told the BBC last year that the republic was now in a situation of "civil war".

In the most high-profile recent attack, Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was severely wounded when a suicide bomber attacked his motorcade in June. He has not yet returned to work but is said to be recovering.

In a statement, he blamed Monday's attack on militants angered by recent security operations along the border with Chechnya.

"It was an attempt to destabilise the situation and sow panic," he said.

Less than a week ago, Ingushetia's construction minister was shot dead by masked gunmen.

That followed the shooting dead of three employees of Russia's emergencies ministry.

In Chechnya, Russian forces were engaged in heavy fighting with separatist rebels until a few years ago, though the fighting has become much less intense recently.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8204670.stm

Published: 2009/08/17

Bombing in Kabul's Diplomatic Quarter Signals Taliban Intent to Disrupt Election

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, August 16, 2009

KABUL, Aug. 15 -- A suicide car bombing outside the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan's capital Saturday was the most serious indication yet of the Taliban's designs to disrupt Thursday's presidential election through violence.

The Islamist militia, which is fighting NATO and Afghan forces for control in wide swaths of the country, has fired rockets into Kabul in recent days, but the attack Saturday was the most brutal in the heart of the capital in six months. At least seven Afghans were killed, and more than 90 people were wounded.

If such violence succeeds in scaring voters away from the polls, Afghanistan faces a serious long-term problem. A low turnout, particularly in Taliban strongholds in the south, could cast doubts on the legitimacy of the election results.

"It is the Taliban who are trying to deny Afghans their political rights," said a senior U.S. official in Afghanistan, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "That's a lesson that ought to come home to all of us."

President Hamid Karzai, the front-runner in the election, said in a statement that the attack was an attempt by the nation's enemies to "create fear among the people." But he added that Afghans "are not afraid of any threats, and they will go to cast their votes."

Guarding voting sites and securing roads to the polling places has become the top priority for NATO forces. Of the 17 million registered voters, a turnout of more than 50 percent would be considered high, some U.S. officials say. In recent days, American military officials have received intelligence reports warning of suicide bombings and other catastrophic Taliban attacks, as well as quieter acts of intimidation. Insurgents issued similar threats of violence, and carried out some of them, ahead of elections in Iraq.

"Letters at night, threats and that sort of thing to try to dissuade people from going to the polls," the senior U.S. official said. "My impression is frankly there's much more in the way of intimidation than actual violence."

In the heated environment of the campaign's final days, the bombing became a political issue, with Karzai's rivals arguing that he is responsible for the escalating violence in the country.

"I'm absolutely sure that we cannot bring peace in Afghanistan when the criminals of war are in power in Afghanistan," said Ramazan Bashardost, a presidential candidate. "I believe the Taliban war is not against American or British troops as much as it is a war against the Taliban enemy, which means" Karzai.

The Taliban quickly asserted responsibility for Saturday's car bombing at the security checkpoint outside the diplomatic compound that houses the U.S. and NATO military headquarters and the U.S. Embassy. Reached by telephone, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said a fighter named Ahmed detonated his four-wheel-drive vehicle carrying more than 1,000 pounds of explosives in order to kill Americans and disrupt the election, which he described as an "American process."

The bombing occurred at 8:30 a.m. about 30 yards from the main compound entrance on a heavily guarded street. The explosion blew a hole in the road, crumbled concrete walls and shattered windows of buildings hundreds of yards away. The less-fortified row of buildings opposite the compound sustained the greatest damage, including the office of the Afghan Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and the government television and radio station.

Mohammad Rafi, 22, a cook at Super Burger, was preparing a salad when the explosion shattered the plate glass window of his restaurant. He fell to the floor as shards rained down.

"Only God knows why they did this. I pray that God destroys them," Rafi said. "We just hate the suicide bombers."

Diplomats said that windows were shattered inside the compound but that damage was relatively light, with barriers mitigating much of the force of the blast. Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad wandered out of the compound surrounded by guards and said the windows of his residence and those of the Spanish ambassador's were blown out.

Western military spokesmen said that "several" international troops were injured but that none was killed. One U.S. military official said it appeared that no Americans were seriously injured.

Many of the wounded Afghans were taken to a nearby hospital. Raz Muhammad Alami, the technical and operations deputy minister at the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, said 57 people from his ministry were injured, 36 seriously.

In the crowded recovery room for women, bombing victims moaned in pain and some appeared unconscious. One ministry employee, Freshata Nazami, 21, said she was walking along a window-lined hallway and fell to the floor when the blast occurred. "It was such a disastrous day," she said from her hospital bed, with dried blood spots on her face and shirt. "My head was injured. I was running to the basement. When I got to the basement, I lost consciousness."

"All our friends and colleagues were injured, and I don't know where they are," she said.

Officials said they expect more pre-election violence. The bombing prompted the United Nations to restrict movement of its personnel in Kabul, but the measures were lifted by the end of the day.

"Incidents like this were probably to some extent expected, although you can never predict where they will happen," said Adrian Edwards, a U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan. "This is probably one of the most complex elections attempted anywhere, and, unfortunately, insecurity is part of that complexity."

Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.

Spain on High Alert after Bombs

Police in Spain are on heightened alert after two bomb attacks in 48 hours blamed on the Basque separatists, Eta.

On Thursday, two Civil Guard officers were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a base in the resort town of Palmanova on the island of Majorca.

Another car bomb blast on Wednesday destroyed much of a police barracks in the northern city of Burgos and left more than 50 people slightly wounded.

The attacks coincide with the 50th anniversary of Eta's founding.

They also come at a time when police resources are stretched because of the start of the holiday season.

Map of where the bomb struck

Following Thursday's bombing, the authorities temporarily closed ports and airports on Majorca as part of a security operation to prevent those responsible from escaping, causing travel chaos for tourists.

Eta has been held responsible for more than 820 deaths during its campaign for an independent homeland in Spain's Basque region.

'Vile murderers'

The two Civil Guards who were killed in Palmanova - Carlos Saenz de Tejada Garcia and Diego Salva Lesaun - had been inside a patrol car parked outside the El Foc barracks when a bomb planted underneath exploded it, security officials said.

Several people were injured by the powerful explosion on the busy road, which sent the vehicle flying through the air and set it on fire.

Police later defused a second explosive device placed under another civil guard vehicle at a different base on Majorca, officials said.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack yet, but Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said it bore all the hallmarks of Eta.

A memorial ceremony has been held at Palma's cathedral for the two officers

"I want to condemn this new low blow with much rage and pain, but also with much determination," he said in a televised address.

"The criminal attack comes at a time when the civil guards and national police, with the co-operation of French security forces, are striking against the terrorist group as never before," he added.

Mr Zapatero said Eta members were being "arrested earlier and in greater numbers, and this is the way it will continue to be".

"The government has given orders to the security forces to be on maximum alert, to double their work, to increase even more their efforts and to protect themselves from these vile murderers," he added.

"They have absolutely no chance of hiding. They cannot escape. They cannot avoid justice. They will be arrested. They will be sentenced. They will spend the rest of their lives in prison."

ANALYSIS Steve Kingstone, Madrid correspondent The charred wreckage of a patrol car in Majorca, and the shattered facade of a police barracks on the mainland represent a grim birthday message from Eta, as the Basque militant group marks the 50th anniversary of its founding. In the wake of the Mallorca killings, a stern-faced Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero again spoke of defeating ETA "definitively". But after the bloodiest week in months, Spaniards may wonder whether he was speaking more out of hope than expectation. Eta's anniversary calling card Majorca bomb: Your stories

On Friday morning, Mr Zapatero and members of the Spanish royal family attended a memorial ceremony at Palma's cathedral for the two civil guards, during which he placed medals of honour on their coffins.

Thursday's attack was the deadliest since two Spanish undercover policemen were shot during an operation in south-western France in December 2007.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid says that for many months Spaniards have been told by their government that Eta is historically weak, following the arrest of a string of alleged commanders of its military wing, but the past 48 hours have provided chilling evidence to the contrary.

Exactly 50 years after it was founded by a small group of radical Basque students, Eta appears to be making a statement - that it has the capability to strike anywhere, our correspondent says.

With the country in its peak tourist season, and with thousands taking to the roads this weekend for their holidays, police resources will be stretched - amid genuine fears of more attacks, he adds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8177839.stm

New Man Behind Jakarta Attacks: Sidney Jones

Jum'at, 31 Juli 2009, 10:13 WIB

by Ita Lismawati F. Malau

(VIVAnews/Nurcholis Anhari Lubis)

VIVAnews - An expert on Islamic terrorist groups in Southeast Asia and an adviser to the International Crisis Group, Sidney Jones, said the name Ibrahim only appeared after the bombings in the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.

Ibrohim was known as an employee of Cinthia Florist, whose service was used by the Ritz-Carlton, Jakarta. For the time being, he was still hunted down by the police as regards the Jakarta attacks which took place on July 17. Nine people were killed and many others were wounded during the incidents.

"Maruto is an old player. His name surfaced as of 2006 in the Wonosobo case (Central Java)," said Jones on Friday, July 31.

Maruto Jato Sulistiyono was alleged of involving in the terrorist link of the number one terrorist fugitive in Indonesia Noordin Mohammed Top.

During a police raid in Wonosobo in 2006, a member of Noordin's network, Jabir, was shot to dead.

According to Jones, the public should give the police time to filter the gathered names and then name them suspects.

She believes that people around Noordin want to be recognized as part of Al-Qaeda network.

Therefore, she said, the man behind the internet message which has attracted public attention recently concerning the JW Marriott and Rit-Carlton bombings does not have to be Noordin himself.

"Many individuals consider them part of the Al-Qaeda without having links to the center," she said.

--

Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono

• VIVAnews

Indonesian Terrorists Find Refuge

By TOM WRIGHT

PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- The two Jakarta hotels hit by suicide bombers on July 17 reopened Wednesday amid tightened security as new evidence indicates terrorists avoided capture for years by relying on the shelter of sympathetic Islamists.

The twin bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed six foreigners, an Indonesian waiter and the two suicide bombers. Police on Wednesday said they are taking seriously an online statement claiming responsibility for the bombings and bearing the name of the man suspected of planning the attack.

Terror Cell Busted

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European Pressphoto Agency

A police officer delivered brochures showing Noordin Mohammad Top to students in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Wednesday. Indonesian authorities believe the Malaysian fugitive Noordin Mohammad Top was the mastermind behind the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel bombings in Jakarta on July 17.

The statement, which surfaced Wednesday and was posted Sunday on an Internet site that hosts blog posts, purports to be from "al Qaeda in Indonesia" and is signed with the name Noordin Mohamed Top. An Indonesian police spokesman said it was too early to tell whether the statement was authentic.

Many intelligence experts agree that terrorist networks in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation are significantly weaker than a few years ago, before U.S.-trained Indonesian security forces ramped up efforts to wipe them out.

But the militants who have eluded capture are still able to rely on numerous havens -- often Islamic schools -- while they gather the fresh recruits and small amounts of money needed to mount more attacks on Indonesian soil.

Investigators have said they believe Mr. Noordin, a Malaysian believed to have carried out a number of terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2003, orchestrated the bombings, and authorities have rounded up a number of his family members and associates in their bid to reel him in.

Mr. Noordin was formerly a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, the al Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terrorist network whose members orchestrated bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people in 2002.

After that, amid a major Indonesian police crackdown that netted hundreds of its members, the group's leadership renounced violence, leaving Mr. Noordin to forge links with smaller radical Islamic groups.

His new network's activities in and around Palembang, a sprawling city of 1.5 million people on the island of Sumatra, show how they operated.

The river port city is a melting pot of Malay, Indian and Chinese people, with a history as a pirate lair. Today, it's a dusty, traffic-clogged city known for its criminal gangs, and for the Masjid Agung, one of the nation's largest mosques, which fills up on Fridays when people from across the city come to pray.

In 2006, according to police documents, an emissary of Mr. Noordin known as Syaifuddin Zuhri, but who used the alias Sabit, arrived at a small Islamic school called al Furqon, about four hours' drive south of Palembang. His mission: To exhort a nonviolent study group of about 10 people concerned about Christian conversions of local Muslims to consider attacks on Western targets.

Mr. Sabit, who had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s, knew the founder of the religious school, a Jemaah Islamiyah member and Afghan veteran called Ani Sugandi, and had helped him recruit hard-line teachers, according to police testimony viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Sugandi later told police he had refused requests to join in the violence, but sheltered Mr. Sabit and allowed him to give a sermon to the group.

In the sermon, Mr. Sabit claimed he had direct links to Osama bin Laden and urged the members to launch a jihad against America and its allies, according to the testimony of Abdurrahman Taib, a leading member of the study group. The following year, Mr. Sabit told Mr. Taib that he had been sent by Mr. Noordin, the police files show.

Mr. Sabit introduced Mr. Taib to a master bomb maker, who later trained others in the group, and supplied him with a loaded revolver and 11 spare bullets to be used in attacks on "infidels," Mr. Taib said in trial testimony.

Members of the group went on, in 2007, to shoot dead a Christian schoolteacher in Palembang who had persuaded his Muslim female students not to wear their veils. The members also built bombs and planned to attack tourist cafes in a Sumatran hill resort popular with backpackers, according to testimony. The group called off the attacks at the last minute because they didn't want to also kill Indonesian Muslims.

When the group was broken up last year, after police followed leads from arrested Jemaah Islamiyah members, Those arrested included Mr. Sugandi, the head of the religious school -- which is now shuttered -- and a 35-year-old Singaporean known as Fajar Taslim, who had helped radicalize the group and was wanted in Singapore for a foiled attempt to attack Western targets there in 2001.

Six suspects picked up had no previous known connection to Jemaah Islamiyah or any other violent group, suggesting Mr. Noordin's network was able to successfully radicalize people.

Eight members of the group confessed and were convicted of the teacher's murder and of planning attacks, and received prison sentences of between 10 and 18 years. Mr. Sugandi was given a five-year sentence for harboring terrorists, and his school shut down. Mr. Sabit wasn't captured.

In Indonesia, a secular nation of 240 million people with thousands of moderate Islamist academies, there are about 50 radical Islamic schools opened by alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Sidney Jones, an expert on Southeast Asian terrorist networks at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a peace-advocacy body, says the school heads -- who want to see the establishment of an Islamic state and are highly distrustful of Indonesia's secular government and police -- often allow known terrorists to stay with them as long as they promise not to engage in acts of violence while there.

"You can be at any one of these schools and link in to Noordin" or his associates, says Ms. Jones, who first outlined the story of the Palembang group in a report last May.

The Indonesian government has hesitated to close the schools because of the difficulty of proving direct links to terrorism and the sensitivity about government interference in religious education, said a senior Indonesian antiterrorism official

Heri Purwanto, a 25-year-old who was in the Palembang study group and made a living hawking prepaid cards for mobile phones, was guarding the group's bombs in a derelict house in the city when police arrested him. His mother, Purwati, who lives in a run-down wooden house at the end of a narrow maze of alleys in a poor part of the city, contends her son was never a radical Muslim and is at a loss to explain his involvement.

Ms. Purwati says she complained to guards at her son's Jakarta prison that he was sharing a cell with Mr. Taslim, the Singaporean, and could become further radicalized.

Some members of the study group, who police have been unable to prove were involved in the attacks, have remained free. A lawyer for one of them, Oloan Martua Harahap, who owned an Internet cafe used by the group for meetings but claims not to be have known of the plans for the shooting or planned bombings, says those arrested had became more radical through contact with Mr. Sabit and others. "They were saying jihad must be conducted now and the enemy is Capitalism," says Bahrul Ilmi Yakup, the lawyer. .

Mr. Sabit was arrested in June in Cilacap, a town in Central Java where police now say they believe the Jakarta attacks were planned.

Just a few days before the bombings, police raided an Islamic school in Cilacap run by a man who is the father-in-law of Mr. Noordin and a relative of Mr. Sabit, uncovering bomb making material. The material was similar to an unexploded bomb found later at the JW Marriott. Authorities have since detained a woman believed to be Mr. Noordin's wife. Her father, who ran the school, and Mr. Noordin remain on the run.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Three Convicted for Mumbai Blasts

A court in India has convicted three people of carrying out bombings that killed more than 50 people in the city of Mumbai (Bombay) in 2003.

Haneef Sayyed, his wife Fahmeeda and Ashrat Ansari had pleaded not guilty to murder and conspiracy charges.

The explosions at the famous Gateway of India landmark and a busy market shocked the country and caused carnage.

They were said to be in retaliation for the deaths of Muslims during riots in Gujarat state the year before.

Hundreds have been killed in attacks in Mumbai in recent years.

'Links with militants'

The double car bombing in August 2003 left devastation at the Gateway of India and the Zaveri Bazaar market near the Mumba Devi temple in central Mumbai.

About 180 people were injured.

The three defendants, all of them from Mumbai, were charged under India's Prevention Of Terrorism Act, which has since been repealed.

Two others were accused - Mohammed Ansari and Mohammed Hasan. They were discharged after a review by the special court last year.

The three defendants were convicted of plotting the bombings in co-ordination with the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

LeT is also accused of carrying out other attacks in India in recent years, including the gun and bomb assault on Mumbai last November.

The judge said all three defendants were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which they denied.

Sentencing is due on 4 August and the prosecution is expected to demand the death penalty. The defence plan to appeal.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8169876.stm

Published: 2009/07/27

Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Candra Malik

Radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. (Photo: Adek Berry, AFP)

Radical Cleric Bashir Claims CIA Staged Jakarta Bombings

Solo. Hard-line Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Wednesday blamed the US Central Intelligence Agency for Friday’s bomb attacks on two hotels in Jakarta.

“It’s the CIA, just like in the Bali bombings. The CIA directed the Mujahideen who wanted to take ‘jihad’ action,” said Bashir, who now leads the Jemaah Ashorut Tauhid, an umbrella group for Islamic groups advocating Shariah law.

Bashir left the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) he had founded and chaired for years after disagreements with other leaders of the group and founded the Anshorut Tauhid in September, 2008.

In his first public comments following Friday’s blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta, Bashir said the CIA aimed to arouse hate against Islam, to get Islamic preachers arrested and Islamic study groups disbanded.

However, Bashir clarified, “I am not a bomb expert. I know nothing about it.”

The elderly cleric also reiterated that the Jemaah Islamiyah — a group that authorities said he had led and was an Al Qaeda-linked regional terror network responsible for bomb attacks in the past few years — did not exist.

“It’s wrong to say that Jemaah Islamiyah has been fragmented into two groups, the first being the original group and the second being the Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid. As far as I know, Jemaah Islamiyah is just an Islamic study group in Egypt,” he said.

Just like in the Bali bombings in 2002, Bashir was convinced that jihad networks in the country did not have the capability to make sophisticated bombs.

“Up till now, my opinion is that whoever believes that Mukhlas was the one who designed the Bali bomb is truly an idiot. The Bali bomb was a CIA design,” he said, referring to one of the three men convicted of masterminding the Bali bomb attacks and executed by firing squad.

He said the same thing applied to Friday’s attacks. “I think it’s not that easy to go in an out from the hotel carrying a bomb, even if it was brought in piece by piece. So, I have my own reason in saying that it must be the CIA’s plan to discredit Islam,” he said.

“The CIA, the US and Australia will not win. They actually fear us. Let’s see. Al Qaeda is just a small group but it terrifies them.”

However, Bashir also said that he did not condone the bombings. Citing the Koran, he said a war must be preceded by a formal declaration. “If they just exploded a bomb without any declaration of war, then it is not in accordance with ‘shariah’ or Islamic rule. That’s my opinion  . . . so they [the Mujahideen] could be wrong in their action,” he said.

He added that even in a war, civilians, especially women and children, must not be killed. “Even if they are kafir, they cannot be murdered. If they get involved, even in thought, they must be killed,” he said.

He added that the Al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding School that he cofounded in Ngruki, Central Java, was not a source of terrorists.

Two of the key Bali bombers were alumni of the school, as was the suicide bomber in the 2003 Marriot bomb attack.

Extremist Ideas Survive Crackdown in Indonesia

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government’s crackdown on militant Islamic groups has been widely praised in recent years, particularly by the United States. Proof of its success rested in the fact that, after annual terrorist attacks earlier this decade, none had taken place in nearly four years.

But as a clearer picture has begun emerging of Friday’s coordinated suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels here, terrorism experts and some Indonesian officials are focusing on what they describe as weaknesses in Indonesia’s antiterrorism campaign. Although the authorities have arrested hundreds of militants and severely weakened Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terrorist network, they have had much less success in uprooting the culture that breeds extremism.

The authorities have failed to aggressively check the radical clerics, Islamic schools or publishing houses that allow extremists to recruit and raise money for their operations, these experts said. Even moderate, politically powerful religious leaders, who are against violence, oppose any perceived government interference in their affairs. And as democracy has become entrenched since the fall of President Suharto a decade ago, the authorities have appeared hesitant to use tactics that may recall the era of military rule.

“The bombings should be a catalyst for Indonesia to develop a more comprehensive approach,” said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “They’ve been too focused on catching operators when they need to be tougher in actually preventing terrorism. They should take the boxing gloves off.”

The police have still not arrested anyone in the attacks, which killed seven people, including six foreigners, and wounded 50 more. On Wednesday, the police released sketches of two men suspected of being the suicide bombers and who were initially counted among the victims. Nanan Soekarna, a spokesman for the national police, said that DNA tests showed that the remains of neither of the suspected bombers matched a man named Nur Said, a militant whom the local news media had identified as one of the suicide bombers.

On Wednesday, investigators also detained a woman identified as Ariana Rahma, who is believed to be married to Noordin Muhammad Top, the prime suspect in the attacks, the local news outlets reported. She is said to be the daughter of the head of an Islamic boarding school in Cilacap, Central Java, that was raided last month. Investigators in that raid discovered bomb-making materials identical to those used Friday, the police have said.

The authorities have said that the bomb-making methods and the nature of the attacks indicated strongly that they were the work of Mr. Noordin, a Malaysian extremist who is believed to be behind the attacks earlier this decade. He was once a senior official in Jemaah Islamiyah and is the most wanted fugitive in Southeast Asia. Many extremist groups operating in Indonesia are said to have ties to him.

Though Mr. Noordin has evaded capture over the years, the Indonesian authorities have greatly disrupted Jemaah Islamiyah’s leadership. Once a network with operations throughout Southeast Asia, experts said, it now survives mostly in Indonesia in loosely affiliated small groups. The Indonesian government has also run a much-praised program in certain prisons that works to persuade Islamic militants to give up extremism.

But experts said that the authorities had been reluctant to rein in clerics and schools that had allowed extremists like Mr. Noordin to continue operating.

“On the law enforcement side, the achievements have been certifiable,” said Sidney Jones, an expert on Islamic terrorism at the International Crisis Group’s branch here in Jakarta. But Ms. Jones said that with an estimated 50 schools with ties to Jemaah Islamiyah, fugitives were sheltered, new recruits were found and money was raised.

“These places remain nodes of communication that are critical to keeping the network alive,” she said. “Everybody knows where these schools are, but there’s been a sensitivity in dealing with them because people don’t want to see Islamic education stigmatized.”

Islamic schools, called “pesantrens” here, have long played a central role in many Indonesian communities. Only a few are said to espouse violent tactics. But the schools, which are politically powerful, have long resisted greater government scrutiny.

“It would be very difficult to start questioning ulamas from these schools,” said a senior Indonesian counterterrorism official, referring to Islamic scholars at the schools and speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media. “Even moderate Indonesians would react negatively against that.”

The official said that sensitivity about carrying out any measure with a tinge of the pre-democratic Suharto era also complicated investigators’ activities. While permits were needed to publish books in the past, publishers of radical ideology are now flourishing in Indonesia and account for the biggest source of such thought in Southeast Asia.

“Since democratization, we’ve been in a conundrum,” the official said. “Do we start banning books?

“We’re conscious that we have not eradicated the deeper problems in the last five years,” the official added.

Mr. Gunaratna, of Nanyang Technological University, said Indonesia needed to adopt tougher antiterrorism laws, like those in Singapore and Malaysia, which allow suspects to be detained and questioned longer without bringing charges.

“That’s the reason there has been no attack inside Singapore or Malaysia,” he said. “Since democratization, some members of the Indonesian elite have the misguided view that these measures are antidemocratic.”

Jakarta Blasts Renew Security Fears

By TOM WRIGHT

JAKARTA -- The explosions that ripped through Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels on Friday raised new concerns about the growing sophistication of terrorists in Asia and the possibility that suicide bombers may have been purposefully targeting a meeting of largely Western businessmen.

Police are still investigating the nearly simultaneous suicide attacks, which killed nine people and injured 53 others after the bombers apparently smuggled bomb parts into the hotel disguised as laptops. Although police haven't officially named any suspects, intelligence experts, analysts and investigators say that Noordin Mohammad Top, a 40-year-old member of the al- Qaeda-backed Jemaah Islamiyah network, or terrorists linked to him, are now the leading suspects in masterminding the attacks.

The Associated Press Sunday cited reports that the Indonesian government was intensifying efforts to find Mr. Noordin and had enlisted help from authorities in Malaysia, where Mr. Noordin lived until earlier this decade.

The attack had many of the hallmarks of a Jemaah Islamiyah operation, analysts said, and Indonesian police said an undetonated bomb found in room 1808 of the JW Marriott -- which police believe the bombers used as their base -- was almost identical to a cache of bombs found recently at a house owned by Mr. Noordin's father-in-law in Cilacap, central Java. The Marriott room was booked under the name Nurdin Azis, which is similar to aliases Mr. Noordin has used in the past.

The unexploded bomb showed "strong indications" that Mr. Noordin or terrorist cells linked to him were involved in Friday's events, said Ansyaad Mbai, head of counterterrorism at Indonesia's Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, in an interview on Saturday. "The bomb in the Marriott was similar to ones we found in Cilacap," he said.

Indonesian police have yet to identify the perpetrators of the blasts at two Jakarta hotels, but police said Monday the regional militant group Jemaah Islamiah could be behind the attacks. Video courtesy of Reuters.

Attempts to identify the two suicide bombers, who were among the nine dead, were continuing, with police believing at least one of them was Indonesian. Both of their bodies were decapitated in the blasts, making it difficult to verify their identities.

Whatever the investigation reveals, the terrorists' success in smuggling bomb parts into the JW Marriott underscores their growing ability to beat tactics employed by security experts in recent years to keep them at bay. Because of past bouts with terrorism in Indonesia, including bombings in Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people, major Jakarta hotels have some of the tightest security in the world, with airport-style metal detectors and heavily guarded driveways with roadblocks.

The bombers appeared to have no trouble getting past those security measures, though, smuggling bomb parts into the hotel disguised as laptops, police said. The ability to assemble bombs inside hotels is "definitely a step up in their tactics," said Paul Quaglia, an analyst in Bangkok at PSA Asia, a security consulting company that has done an audit for the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta. "It's definitely something that was well planned."

Fears were also rising that the bombers were targeting elite businessmen specifically. Noke Kiroyan, an Indonesian citizen and former local chairman of mining company Rio Tinto PLC, was one of 19 executives breakfasting in a small lounge in the JW Marriott, which a local consulting group hires each Friday for its meetings. Mr. Kiroyan, who lost part of his right ear in the attack, said he believes that the bomber who hit the hotel would have chosen the main restaurant on the other side of the JW Marriott's lobby, where most guests were breakfasting and which was the target of a 2003 attack on the same hotel, if they had wanted to inflict the maximum number of casualties. "I think we were targeted," he said.

Other Western executives in Jakarta repeated concerns over the possible targeting of business elites, which they said may lead foreign businesses to be more cautious about how they operate in Indonesia and possibly recalibrate expansion plans. In recent years, Indonesia has made strides in arresting terrorists, making Westerners feel more secure. ExxonMobil Corp. and other foreign resource companies had recently planned to increase the number of expatriate staff in Indonesia.

Just before the blast, early Friday morning, the hotel's closed-circuit television caught images of the suicide bomber, wearing a backpack on his chest and wheeling a suitcase, turning left in the lobby and walking purposefully toward the lounge.

The bomber was challenged by a hotel security guard as he approached the room but was waved through after saying he was delivering a package to his boss, local media reported. Moments later, while at the entrance of the lounge, which was cordoned off with rope, he detonated his bomb, which police said was packed with nails.

Mr. Kiroyan was sitting at a conference table with his back to the lounge's entrance and was partly shielded by a pillar. The last thing Mr. Kiroyan remembers before the blast is reading a long message from his wife on his mobile phone. "Suddenly there was a loud bang and a blinding flash," he said. "My first thought was that my mobile phone exploded. You hear stories about mobile phones exploding. But then I realized it couldn't be that."

Suddenly, Mr. Kiroyan was lying on the floor in pitch darkness with his clothes soaking wet. What he at first took to be blood turned out to be water from the hotel's emergency sprinkler system. People were crying out that they couldn't see.

Mr. Kiroyan then made his way out of the room, where he was met by two hotel staff and guided outside to wait for an ambulance. "I feel angry but relieved that I am alive," Mr. Kiroyan said.

Although he didn't directly observe the suicide bomber, Mr. Kiroyan said other colleagues at the meeting later recounted that some of the people in the room remember seeing an unknown Indonesian man at the entrance just before the explosion.

The four foreigners who have so far died in the Marriott explosion -- three Australians and a New Zealander -- were all sitting at the far end of table from Kiroyan, nearest the entrance. An Indonesian waiter and the suicide bomber also were killed in the explosion.

Indonesian terrorists have failed in recent years to kill a large number of Westerners in suicide bombings. The 2002 Bali nightclub attacks killed 202 mainly Western tourists through two bombs, one in a car and the other carried in a backpack by a suicide bomber. But an earlier attack on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, by a car bomb, killed 12 people, two-thirds of them Indonesians, and injured more than a hundred. Attacks against the Australian embassy in 2004 and again in Bali in 2005, killed mainly Indonesians.

Foreign expatriates living in Jakarta said none of the previous attacks so directly targeted foreign business interests. The idea that the meeting Friday may have been a focus was "a scary thought" said William Reed Rising, a U.S. citizen who works in real estate and normally attends the briefing but was absent last week.

—Patrick Barta contributed to this article.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Indonesian Police Say Jakarta Bombings Are Work of Jemaah Islamiyah

By Brian Padden Jakarta 19 July 2009

Indonesian Police say the bombings of two hotels in Jakarta on Friday was the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group with al-Qaida ties. Analysts say it is likely that Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive who leads an affiliated group within a Southeast Asian militant network, planned and organized the attacks. The two blasts killed nine people, including the two suspected attackers, and wounded 50, many of them foreigners.

Indonesian national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna says the bombing attacks on the Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels in Jakarta on Friday were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah. The group with ties to Al-Qaida, has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia in the past decade, including a 2002 attack in Bali that left more than 200 people dead, mostly foreign tourists.

A poster bearing image of Southeast Asia terror ringleaders Noordin M. Top, left, and Azhari bin Husin is put on a tree in Jakarta (File)

He told reporters Sunday an unexploded bomb left in a guest room of the Marriott hotel, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled explosives used in Bali and one discovered in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school.

Sidney Jones, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, says Noordin Top, a Malaysian who leads the most militant faction of Jemaah Islamiyah, is the likely organizer of the attacks.

"Noordin is the only person of the various leaders of radical groups in Indonesia who is continued to be determined to attack western targets and particularly American targets," said Jones.

Jones says Noordin has used suicide bombers in the past like the ones used in Friday's attacks. And she says before the bombing police had some intelligence indicating Noordin may have been planning something.

"It was clear in the last two weeks that something was afoot. And the police were very actively searching this area in South Central Java called Cilacap because they believe some of Noordin's associates were active there," said Jones. "And we now know there is linkage between explosive materials used in these hotel bombings with some of the materials found in Cilacap by police."

But Jones says Noordin Top may have split from the main Jemaah Islamiyah organization, or JI, which had recently turned away from violence because it was turning public opinion against them.

"The bulk of JI members are not interested in violence now because they regard this kind of bombing as counter-productive," added Jones. "They need to rebuild their organization and they do that by recruiting new members through religious outreach. This kind of bombing does not bring you any new members, it creates outrage in the community."

Jones says bombing the Marriott Hotel, which was also attacked in 2003, was probably meant to demonstrate that their group is still active and able penetrate the increased security.

Bombing Suspects Spent Two Days at Hotel

By TOM WRIGHT

JAKARTA -- The suspects in the two deadly bombings here Friday checked into one of the targeted hotels two days earlier and assembled explosives in their room, evading the kind of tight security that has helped convince foreigners it is again safe to do business in Indonesia.

Suicide bombers at the JW Marriott and nearby Ritz-Carlton hotels killed eight people and injured 53, striking at the heart of corporate Indonesia.

The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott are seen as symbols of the country's new economic strength and growing appeal to foreign investors. They have marble floors and gold-plated columns, and Indonesia's rich and famous dine at their restaurants and hammer out business deals in their lounges, adorned with spacious armchairs and grand pianos. Nearby are some of the city's most expensive restaurants, which often have Ferraris parked outside.

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Both hotels have security measures intended to prevent terrorists from driving a car full of explosives toward their lobbies, as Islamist radicals did at the JW Marriott in 2003, killing 12 people. Since Indonesia's last terrorist attack in Bali in 2005, new security measures and a major crackdown on Islamic terrorists by U.S.-trained Indonesian antiterrorism police made Westerners feel more secure.

On Friday, some of Jakarta's best-known Western and Indonesian business figures gathered for a regular 8 a.m. breakfast meeting at the Marriott hosted by Jim Castle, an American who runs CastleAsia, a prominent local consulting firm.

Mr. Castle, who has lived for almost 30 years in Indonesia and regularly appears on cable news shows, was at the Marriott during the 2003 blast. He wasn't injured then, and has expressed a cautious optimism about the country's prospects. Among topics for discussion at the conference: The success of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former army general who was re-elected a week earlier on a platform of restoring law and order.

Bombings Shake Jakarta: Photos

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A Restive Region: Map

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Upstairs, in Room 1808, a number of guests had checked in Wednesday under aliases -- including one similar to the alias of Southeast Asia's most-wanted terrorist suspect. A police spokesman declined to say how many people had checked in or to give their nationalities.

Shortly before 8 a.m. Friday, security video footage showed, a man wearing a cap and pulling a bag on wheels crossed the lobby of the JW Marriott, walking toward the restaurant. A flash followed, and smoke filled the air.

A few minutes later a blast went off at the restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton. Cho Insang, a South Korean who runs a modeling agency and was organizing a fashion show in the hotel in August, was having breakfast when the bomb exploded. He was knocked to the floor, and was able to run out into the lobby. "The room was full of smoke and people panicking," he said. He suffered minor facial injuries.

The lobby areas of both hotels were left a mangled mess of steel and glass, full of damaged furniture and other debris. The sidewalks outside were caked with blood.

The blasts sent workers running into the street, many in their nightclothes or underwear. Local television showed images of mangled and bloodied bodies slumped on the floor. Plumes of smoke from the blasts shrouded the area as the injured were laid out on a nearby square of undeveloped land.

When the dust settled, two well-known expatriate business leaders attending the CastleAsia breakfast were dead: Timothy Mackay, a New Zealander who headed Swiss cement maker Holcim Ltd.'s local operations, and Nathan Verity, an Australian who ran his own Jakarta-based recruitment company.

Authorities didn't release the identities of all of the other six people killed, and it remained unclear whether the suicide bombers were among them

The injured who were at the breakfast included Noke Kiroyan, an Indonesian former chairman of miner Rio Tinto's local operations; Andy Cobham, an American who previously headed cellphone company Motorola Inc. in Indonesia; and David Potter, an executive at Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Mr. Castle's hearing was affected after the blast but he was in a stable condition, his assistant said.

Authorities later found a third, unexploded bomb in Room 1808. An Indonesian bomb squad detonated the device, the police spokesman said.

The attacks appeared to be the work of highly capable bomb makers, security experts said. The investigation is focusing on Islamist terrorists, primarily, Noordin Mohamed Top, who is considered an expert bomb maker from Jemaah Islamiyah, a local affiliate of al Qaeda.

In a televised address, a visibly angry Mr. Yudhoyono said the bombings were attempts to destabilize the country after the elections. "I'm confident just like when we have uncovered [terrorists] in the past, the perpetrators and those who moved this act of terrorism will be caught and brought to justice," Mr. Yudhoyono said, pausing for seconds at a time to control his emotions.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

Indonesian President Calls Hotel Bombings Acts of Terror

By Brian Padden Jakarta 17 July 2009

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says the two bombs that went off in the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta, killing eight people and wounding at least 50 more, are acts of terrorism.

Rescuers evacuate the body of a victim of the bomb explosion outside J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 17 Jul 2009

Police pushed back crowds as paramedics carried out the bodies of five people who died in the blast at the Marriott hotel in an upscale business district in south Jakarta. A second bomb exploded at the nearby Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Witnesses say they heard loud explosions and saw clouds of smoke and dust shortly before eight in the morning.

Iwan, a waiter who was working at a Ritz-Carlton restaurant where one bomb was reportedly detonated, survived unharmed. He says he does not know whether it was a bomb or not in the restaurant, but there was a powerful explosion.

Police say the bombs exploded inside the hotels. The perpetrators were somehow able to avoid extensive hotel security. Jakarta's police chief says several suspects were staying at the Marriott hotel, on the 18th floor where undetonated explosives were found.

The two hotels are connected by an underground tunnel but the president's spokesman, Dino Pati Djalal says it is too early to speculate on how the bombs were planted.

"The minister for security affairs has stated that this is something of, a bomb of a high explosive, that is how he described it," he said. "But exactly what kind, what type, and how was it exploded and what is the modus operandi, that all remains to be determined."

Although those responsible have not yet been identified, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called the bombings terrorism. He says no matter what nation or religion, terrorism cannot be justified, whatever the motive or reason.

This is the first terrorist attack in Indonesia in four years and the second time the Marriott Hotel was bombed. That last attack in 2003 was blamed on the Islamic terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which also was responsible for attacks around the country that claimed more than 230 lives over the past nine years.

The president, who won re-election last week, also said security officials had received intelligence of plots to disrupt the election and prevent him from being inaugurated. He says there were plans to take over the election committee headquarters and statements that there will be a revolution if Yudhoyono wins.

He did not say what group made these threats.

A number of international business leaders who were meeting in the Marriott, including American James Castle, were injured in the blast. A New Zealand businessman was killed and an Australian trade official, Craig Senger, is missing and feared dead.

The British soccer club Manchester United, which was booked to stay at the Ritz Carlton starting Saturday, has canceled its visit to Jakarta.