Jakarta bombing: Hunt hots up

2004-09-11 11:24

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities intensified their hunt on Saturday for the masterminds behind the bomb attack on the Australian Embassy.

Meanwhile, Australia's police chief warned that another suicide squad was at large - and may be planning more attacks.

The truck bombing on Thursday in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killed nine people and wounded more than 170.

Police believe two of the dead were suicide bombers.

All those killed were Indonesians, some of them embassy guards.

The bombing, which came ahead of elections in Indonesia and Australia, has been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group - the same network implicated in the October 12 2002 Bali blasts and last year's attack on the J W Marriott Hotel.

Also on Saturday, 1 000 members of the radical Islamic group, Hizbut Thahrir, rallied in a central Jakarta square to protest against terrorism.

'We don't support bombings'

Last year, the group organised protests against the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

Demonstrators carried banners reading: "Islam rejects terrorism!"

"We are deeply saddened by Thursday blasts. We don't want to be labelled as a group that supports bombings," the group's spokesperson, Ismail Yusanto, told reporters.

Police spokesperson Major-General Paiman said officers had found a rented room used by two Malaysians suspected of making the embassy bombs in west Jakarta, near the city's international airport.

He said the pair - Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Top - stayed there in late July, but gave no more details.

Australian federal police commissioner Mick Keelty told ABC television that authorities believed there was a second group of suicide bombers at large in Jakarta, and that they might be preparing for another attack.

White delivery truck

"Intelligence comes through all the time about threats and possible threats, and there's further intelligence in the last 24 to 48 hours of a second group," Keelty said before returning to Australia late on Friday from Jakarta.

On Friday, police released a security camera photo of a white delivery truck just before it blew up outside the embassy.

Australia is a key US ally in the war in Iraq and the timing of the bombing - a month before Australia's elections - has led to speculation it may have been an attempt to influence the polls.

Prime Minister John Howard is running in a tight race on a pro-American, anti-terror platform.

- AP