Indonesia hunts bomb suspects
2005-10-03 06:40
Kuta - Indonesian police on Monday were hunting the suspects who helped suicide bombers attack the resort of Bali, leaving at least 19 people dead and raising fears of more violence from Islamic militants.
Authorities said Saturday's carnage bore the hallmarks of a group linked to al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah.
Police showed grisly photographs of the detached heads of the presumed attackers after they strapped themselves with explosives and blew up three restaurants full of tourists and locals on Saturday night.
In addition to the dead the bombings left more than 120 people wounded, many of them seriously, after the attackers apparently packed their bombs with ball bearings to inflict maximum injury.
Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said at least three other people were involved in planning the coordinated, simultaneous attacks.
Tourism takes a knock
Officials said similarities with the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks that killed 202 people pointed to the handiwork of Azahari Husin, an expert bomb-maker from Malaysia known as the "Demolition Man".
Azahari and another Malaysian fugitive, Noordin Mohammad Top, are two of Asia's most wanted men said to be the radical masterminds behind JI.
As forensics teams combed beaches and sifted through the wreckage Monday, officials gave different death tolls from the attacks.
Information officials at Sanglah, the main hospital treating the victims, said the death toll had risen to 27. Pastika said on Sunday night that 22 had been killed.
The attacks cast a pall over tourism in Bali, Indonesia's top tourist destination, which was just starting to recover from the attacks three years ago that killed scores of foreigners, including 88 Australians.
With wreaths of mourning planted on the island's golden sands, Bali's previously bustling restaurants and bars had once again grown eerily silent.
Bombings a bid to undermine Indonesian president
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected suggestions the attacks were aimed at his country, a staunch ally in the US "war on terror" whose tourists regularly flock to Bali.
He said the bombings were a bid to undermine Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who represented "a threat to Islamic extremism."
Australia repeated its warning against travelling to Bali and said further attacks were possible.
Australia's police commissioner Mick Keelty said that members of his force were already in Bali to take part in the investigation.
The joint Indonesian-Australian investigation into the Bali bombings three years ago was considered highly successful, leading to the arrest and conviction of virtually an entire network of conspirators.
A video released by Indonesian police showed one of the presumed bombers calmly walking across one of the restaurants and back toward the kitchen. Seconds later came the explosion, and then screams.