Bomb Blast- Terrorist Attack, Straits Times, July 21, 2009

Straits Times, July 21, 2009


Jakarta blasts: More than 2 bombers?

Two Dutch guests of Ritz-Carlton reported missing

By Salim Osman & Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

JAKARTA: Indonesian police are not ruling out the possibility that more than two suicide bombers were involved in the twin strikes on two luxury hotels, JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, last Friday that left nine people dead and more than 50 others injured.

Police are still trying to identify four of the bodies recovered from the two hotels, deputy police spokesman, Brigadier-General Sulistyo Ishak, told a press conference yesterday.

'We are not ruling out the possibility that there could be more than two perpetrators of the bombings. They might be among the four unidentified bodies,' he said. 'Investigations are on-going.'

Two of the bodies were decapitated, making it difficult to verify their identities, although police are certain they belong to the suicide bombers.

Yesterday, police released the names of the five victims identified so far. They were Mr Timothy Mackay, a New Zealander; Mr Andrew Craig Senger, Mr John Rupert Garth McEvoy and Mr John Nathan Verity, all of whom were Australians; and Indonesian chef Evert Mokodomvis, 33.

Mr Mackay, 61, was chief executive of PT Holcim Indonesia, a cement firm; Mr Verity, 39, a business consultant; Mr Senger, 36, an Australian Embassy trade officer; and Mr McEvoy, 40, the commercial manager of PT Thiess Contractors.

Two Dutch citizens, said to be guests at the Ritz-Carlton, were also reported to be missing, and a Foreign ministry spokesman in The Hague disclosed yesterday that it was already in touch with Indonesian police about the matter.

Gen Sulistyo said investigators had yet to conclude that the terror group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was involved in Friday's attacks, even though an unexploded device found in a room in the Marriott - believed to be the control room for the terrorists - was similar to the ones used by the JI in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and a cache of bombs found at an Islamic boarding school in Cilacap, Central Java, two weeks ago.

'From the way the bomb was constructed and the type used, they bore similarities with the ones we found in Cilacap and Bali,' he said.

Police believe the unexploded bomb showed 'strong indications' Noordin Mohammed Top, a 40-year-old member of the Al-Qaeda-backed JI network, or terrorist cells linked to him were involved in Friday's attacks. The police have so far identified one of the attackers only as 'N', without giving further details.

The deputy police spokesman yesterday declined to comment on media reports identifying one of the bombers as Nur Hasbi, a former student who graduated from the Ngruki Islamic boarding school in Solo, Central Java, in 1995. The school is run by militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, widely regarded as the spiritual leader of JI.

State-owned Antara news agency said Nur Hasbi's parents in Temanggung, Central Java, were taken by the police to undergo DNA tests yesterday in a bid to help the authorities identify one of the bodies.

The Indo Pos daily yesterday carried a picture of the almost intact severed head believed to belong to Nur Hasbi as well as a photo of him in dark glasses.

The alleged bomber, who had a string of aliases, including Nur Hasdi, Nur Said and Nurdin Azis, has not contacted his family for many years, said the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said life in the capital had gone back to normal, and dismissed speculation of an exodus of expatriates from the city.