Bomber linked to al-Qaeda

2003-08-08 16:02

Jakarta - The suspected suicide bomber who attacked the J W Marriott Hotel in Jakarta this week was recruited by the al-Qaeda linked regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, police said on Friday.

The statement is the latest indication that Jemaah Islamiyah, which is accused of carrying out last year's deadly nightclub bombings on the island of Bali, was also behind Tuesday's blast, which killed 10 people and injured almost 150.

Two jailed Jemaah Islamiyah members who were shown a photograph of the alleged bomber's face identified him and admitted to having recruited him, said Indonesian chief of detectives Erwin Mappaseng.

The alleged bomber's severed head was found at the site of the attack, police said. The two detainees identified him as Asmar Latin Sani, a 28-year-old man from the island of Sumatra.

"The two Jemaah Islamiyah members recruited Asmar Latin Sani," Mappaseng told reporters. "According to the two and Asmar's brother, they identified the face on the severed head as Asmar, based on a scar on his left temple."

Mappaseng identified the two Jemaah Islamiyah operatives as Sardono Siliwangi and Mohammad Rais. He said they were arrested in June and accused of involvement in bombings and robberies on Sumatra, Indonesia's westernmost island.

But in London, the Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arab on Friday published extracts of a statement dated August 5, 2003, from an al-Qaeda linked terrorist cell, called the Abu Hafs el-Masri brigades, claiming responsibility for the attack.

The newspaper said the brigades described the attack as "a strong slap in the face of America and its agents in Islamic Jakarta, which has been cursed by the dirty American and the bold and racist Australian presence."

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

The statement, which was faxed to the newspaper on Thursday, said: "The mujahedeen were monitoring CIA agents who came to interrogate the mujahedeen taken captive by the apostate Indonesian government." This was in apparent reference to convicted Bali bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and more than 30 others arrested for the October 12, 2002, bombings, which killed 202 people.

It was not immediately known whether any American agents were inside the hotel at the time. Only one American, a woman from Maryland, was injured in the blast.

Al-Quds Al-Arab said the attackers claimed they packed cars with explosives and parked them in front of the hotel.

They set the timer of the explosives to detonate when the CIA officials entered the hotel, the paper said. This seemed to contradict police statements here that said that Sani was likely to have been in the moving vehicle at the time of the blast.

Indonesia's police spokesperson Edward Aritonang said authorities would not dismiss such a claim but that they "did not know about them (the Abu Hafs el-Masri brigades)."

Da'i Bachtiar, Indonesia's police chief, said earlier evidence gathered so far had pointed the investigation toward Jemaah Islamiyah.

"Indeed it is heading in that direction," he said, indicating that documents seized from the group in previous arrests showed the terror network had planned to target the downtown district in which the Marriott is located.

Bachtiar released photos of two unnamed men, saying they could be linked to Sani and the Marriott explosion. And in a surprise move, he offered an apology for not being able to prevent the Marriott attack - the 13th bombing in Indonesia's capital in four years.

"I apologise to the people ... despite our efforts to stop terrorists, there was still a bomb attack," he said.

Officials have already said Jakarta's hotel attack was similar to the Bali blasts.

The perpetrators in both attacks used the same kind of explosives and tried to scrape off the identification numbers on the vehicles used. Police also said the Marriott bombers used a mobile phone to set it off - the same method used on Bali.

Meanwhile, the Marriott's management said they expect the hotel to reopen in 30 days. The building's ground floor restaurant and lobby were badly damaged by the blast, but it remained structurally intact, officials said.

In her first public comments since the hotel's bombing, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to evolve "into a full-fledged security community" to combat the growing threat of international terrorism.

"It has become clear that no single country or group of countries can overcome this threat alone," Megawati told a conference marking ASEAN's 36th anniversary on Friday.

She said the proposal for an enhanced security role for ASEAN - which has traditionally limited itself to promoting economic ties between its 10 members - will top the agenda of the group's next summit in October in Bali.

Also Friday, the US government announced it would provide $500 000 in emergency assistance to the victims of the hotel bombing.

"Our assistance will prioritise direct help to families and victims impacted by the tragedy," ambassador Ralph Boyce said.

- AP