Two held over Bali bombings
Two men have been detained for questioning over the suicide bombings at three crowded restaurants on Indonesia’s Bali island, police said today.
Maj Gen I Made Mangku Pastika had few details about the men, who were taken in on Sunday and could be held for several more days, saying only that they were not Balinese.
Indonesian officials said earlier said the near-simultaneous bombings that killed 22 people and wounded more than 104 others were apparently planned by two Malaysians – still at large – believed to be connected to the al-Qaida-linked regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
The organisation, terror experts say, has been decimated by a series of arrests since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US, but may have formed alliances with other organisations or individuals.
Pastika said today it was too early to directly blame Azahari and Noordim – or Jemaah Islamiyah.
“We still do not know that,” he told reporters, adding that investigators’ first priority was identifying the three bombers, who wore explosives – packed with ball bearings and other shrapnel – around their waists or in bags over their shoulders.
Police had also questioned 39 witnesses about the bombings, said deputy national police spokesman Brig Gen Sunarko Danu Artanto.
