Blast: Work of suicide bombers
2004-09-10 14:29
Jakarta - Indonesian police suspect that Thursday's attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was a suicide operation and that up to three militants may have died in the blast, a senior commander said on Friday.
"We suspect that it is a suicide bombing," said Lieutenant General Suyitno Landung, the national police force's chief of detectives.
Nine people perished in the attack which has been blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a South-east Asian group linked to al-Qaeda. Only six of the bodies have been identified so far.
"We are trying to determine whether the parts of bodies of three men at Kramat Jati hospital were part of a suicide squad," he said.
Jemaah Islamiyah employed suicide bombers in attacks against two Bali nightclubs in 2002 and the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta a year ago.
"Militants who have been arrested recently said that there were three men who were ready to become suicide bombers," Landung said.
- AP