At least 6 behind Bali blasts

2005-10-02 15:20

Kuta - At least six people conspired to carry out the latest Bali blasts including the three suspected suicide bombers, Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said on Sunday.

"What is clear is they number more than three, at least there are three more people," he told a press conference.

"I am certain that there are others involved in this bombing.

There are those who planned it, there were those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs and those are the ones we must search for."

Pastika said investigators believed the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers because of the way the suspects' bodies had been torn apart, with fragments of their jackets clinging to their dismembered body parts.

Also there were traces of TNT on the corpses, all evidence that the explosives had been strapped to their bodies, he said.

"From these two pieces of information, there is strong evidence that these are suicide bombings," he said.

The Bali police chief said the suspects' heads had been found and remained fairly intact, and sketches would soon be drawn up to aid in the identification process.

Pastika said he estimated that each of the devices detonated on Saturday night, killing at least 26 people, weighed no more than 10kg and that they also contained chemicals other than TNT.

- AFP