Hunt on for Bali masterminds

KUTA – Indonesian police yesterday were hunting the suspects who helped suicide bombers attack the resort of Bali, leaving at least 19 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 (JI), that has waged a bloody campaign against Western interests since 1999, including bombings on Bali three years ago. Police showed grisly photographs of the detached heads of the three 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 pain and injury.”Injuries and deaths were caused by flying missiles, consisting of ball bearings,” said Ida Bagus Putu Alit, forensics director at Sanglah hospital, which is treating most of the victims.”Those who died, died because the missiles hit their vital organs,” he said.Alit said that 19 people were killed along with the three bombers, who were reduced to just a few body parts.But he said enough remained to identify the attackers as Indonesians.”Based on the hair and skin, they are Indonesians,” he said.”Based on the injuries of these three people, they were very close to the bombs.”Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said at least three other people were involved in planning the coordinated, simultaneous attacks.”There are those who planned it, there were those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs,” Pastika said.”Those are the ones we must search for.”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, which wants to carve out an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.Sidney Jones, one of the world’s top authorities on JI, said that while JI was intent on creating an Islamic state, Azahari’s followers focused on avenging the deaths of Muslims and hitting the United States and its “lackeys”.”There’s got to be strong suspicion” that the pair were behind the latest blasts, she told AFP.Jones said the capacity to pull off large actions was “probably weakened” with tighter security, but that more violence was still likely.”It would be foolhardy to suggest we aren’t going to see any more attacks,” she said.The attacks cast a pall over tourism in Bali, Indonesia’s top tourist destination, which was recovering from the attacks three years ago that killed scores of foreigners, including 88 Australians.Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected suggestions that 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”.But Australia repeated its warning against travelling to Bali and said further attacks were possible.”These are not mandatory orders.What I would say to Australians is read the travel advisory,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.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.Downer meanwhile said as many as four Australians may have been killed in the blasts.Hospital officials have confirmed that one Australian and one Japanese were among the dead.But 14 Indonesians were killed and another 83 were wounded, showing the victims were overwhelmingly locals.- Nampa-AFPPolice showed grisly photographs of the detached heads of the three 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 pain and injury.”Injuries and deaths were caused by flying missiles, consisting of ball bearings,” said Ida Bagus Putu Alit, forensics director at Sanglah hospital, which is treating most of the victims.”Those who died, died because the missiles hit their vital organs,” he said.Alit said that 19 people were killed along with the three bombers, who were reduced to just a few body parts.But he said enough remained to identify the attackers as Indonesians.”Based on the hair and skin, they are Indonesians,” he said.”Based on the injuries of these three people, they were very close to the bombs.”Bali police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said at least three other people were involved in planning the coordinated, simultaneous attacks.”There are those who planned it, there were those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs,” Pastika said.”Those are the ones we must search for.”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, which wants to carve out an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.Sidney Jones, one of the world’s top authorities on JI, said that while JI was intent on creating an Islamic state, Azahari’s followers focused on avenging the deaths of Muslims and hitting the United States and its “lackeys”.”There’s got to be strong suspicion” that the pair were behind the latest blasts, she told AFP.Jones said the capacity to pull off large actions was “probably weakened” with tighter security, but that more violence was still likely.”It would be foolhardy to suggest we aren’t going to see any more attacks,” she said.The attacks cast a pall over tourism in Bali, Indonesia’s top tourist destination, which was recovering from the attacks three years ago that killed scores of foreigners, including 88 Australians.Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected suggestions that 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”.But Australia repeated its warning against travelling to Bali and said further attacks were possible.”These are not mandatory orders.What I would say to Australians is read the travel advisory,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.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.Downer meanwhile said as many as four Australians may have been killed in the blasts.Hospital officials have confirmed that one Australian and one Japanese were among the dead.But 14 Indonesians were killed and another 83 were wounded, showing the victims were overwhelmingly locals.- Nampa-AFP