Search widens for Bali bomb suspects
Indonesia widened its search today for suspects in the suicide attacks on Bali island, calling on local authorities across the sprawling nation to monitor and report suspicious activity.
Police are hunting for the militants who ordered the highly-co-ordinated and near-simultaneous attacks last weekend on three restaurants crowded with foreign tourists, as well as those who made the explosives.
The three bombers killed 19 people and wounded 100 others. The al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group – blamed for nightclub bombings on Bali in2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners – is suspected of carrying out the blasts.
Police have circulated nationwide photographs of the three bombers’ bruised severed heads, recovered from sites of the attacks on the island, visited by around 400,000 tourists each month.
“All regional police chiefs are investigating suspicious activities in their areas,” said police spokesman Maj Gen Ariyanto Budiharjo. “The suicide bombers did not work alone. Someone must have ordered them. Someone must have made the eplosives.”
Investigators across the country are interrogating jailed terror convicts, checking if they recognise the bombers, says Bali police chief Maj Gen I Made Mangku Pastika.
Officers have revealed little about the continuing probe, fearing that information released to media could help people linked to the attacks stay one step ahead of them.
Indonesia has been hit by four deadly terror attacks on Western targets in as many years.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on the military to stamp out the scourge of terrorism, saying the bombings “have spoiled Indonesia’s reputation in the eyes of the world”.
Authorities say they are hunting for Malaysian fugitives Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top – believe to be key Jemaaah Islamiyah leaders – in connection with the attacks.
Investigators have said that at least three other people would likely have been involved in planning and carrying out the blasts.
Jemaah Islamiyah was also blamed for August 2003 and September 2004 blasts at the JW Marriott hotel and the Australian embassy, both in Jakarta, that together killed 22.
Pastika, who led the probe into the 2002 attacks, said he had feared terrorists were planning another attack on the island.
“I was very worried,” Pastika told the Java Pos newspaper. “It has become a habit for terrorists to strike in September and October.”
Last Saturday’s attacks have put south-east Asian nations on high alert to prevent more bombings. Hundreds of thousands of troops were on standby, while security was tightened on beaches and along borders.
Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the 2002 Bali bombings, warned on Tuesday of further possible strikes on the island and again urged Jakarta to ban Jemaah Islamiyah.
But Indonesia has said such a ban would be ineffective because the elusive underground group has no established organisation.
