Helicopter scatters pictures of suspected Bali bombers
Police took to the air over the weekend to press the search for the suspected masterminds of the Bali terror bombings, using a helicopter to scatter pictures of the fugitives on another island where at least one of them was thought to be hiding.
Although they expressed confidence in the first days after the October 1 bombings, Indonesian investigators have not announced any major breakthrough.
Brig. Gen. Sunarko Ardanto said today that while pictures of the bombers’ severed heads have been circulated in newspapers nationwide, authorities have so far been unable to identify them. Interviews with more than 180 witnesses also have produced few hard leads, he said.
The manhunt focused on two of Southeast Asia’s most-sought fugitives – Noordin Mohamed Top and Azahari bin Husin – who are alleged to be the leaders of the al Qaida linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
The men are suspected of planning last week’s suicide attack on three tourist-packed Bali restaurants, killing 23 people, including the bombers, and wounding about 100.
They also have been blamed for a bombing that killed 202 in Bali three years ago and at least two other attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Police said they raided one of Noordin’s hideouts before sunrise on Friday but that he slipped away just hours before they stormed the home in central Java province’s Purwantoro district.
Yesterday, a helicopter flew low over the nearby city of Solo and released 10,000 fliers with photographs of Noordin and Azahari and a warning that they are “dangerous terrorists.”
“We hope this can help people recognise them and be aware of them,” said Solo police Maj. Agus Mulyono.
The two fugitives, both Malaysians, have dodged police for years, hiding out in this nation of 220 million people that sprawls over more than 10,000 islands that stretch across 3,000 miles.
“They are probably changing their appearance every second,” said Sunarko. “That’s why we need the support from the public.”
Other leads being pursued included a phone call made by the wife of another top terror suspect, Zulkarnaen, who goes by one name, said central Java’s police chief, Maj. Gen. Chairul Rasyid. The woman called a number in Bali just days before the attack and police were tracing the call, he said.
Thousands of security forces were being deployed at beaches and resorts across Bali, meanwhile, for the third anniversary of the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, police said.
“We’re on full alert,” said Sunarko, adding that soldiers, police, intelligence officers and informers were preparing for Wednesday’s memorial service. “We are working around the clock.”
Eighty-eight of those killed in the 2002 blasts were Australian, and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said he would attend the ceremony. Details of the event have not been released, but in previous years relatives and survivors gathered close to the island’s ground zero – empty lots in the heart of the tourist district.
