Police link Bali bombings to Jakarta blast

Indonesian police released yesterday a sketch of a suspect in the bombing of a US-run luxury hotel in Jakarta and said the device resembled those used in attacks blamed on the shadowy Jemaah Islamiah group.

Tuesday's suicide car bomb attack, two days before the first Bali bomb trial verdict and after a spate of global terror warnings, killed 10 people and wounded 150 at Jakarta's five-star JW Marriott Hotel. Police revised the death toll down from 16.

The Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant Muslim organisation, widely blamed for the Bali attack and linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, had claimed responsibility for the latest blast, Singapore's Straits Times reported.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was worried about more violence within days in Indonesia.

"I think the world should know that what we are facing is an international terrorist organisation, it is not a domestic terrorist cell," Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

Erwin Mappaseng, head of the criminal investigation department, released composite sketches of a man who bought the car into which a deadly cocktail of black powder and TNT wedged between cans filled with petrol was packed. A police caption on one sketch described the man as a suspected bomber.

"On the detonation method, it was known that the bomb was triggered by a mobile phone," he told an evening news conference. "We have not determined whether JI was involved."

The methods, the materials and the detonations all resembled the bombs that destroyed Bali nightclubs and a bomb in Jakarta aimed at the Philippine ambassador in August 2000, he said.

The Bali bombs were composed mainly of TNT and potassium chlorate - a fertiliser compound. Those blasts, the largest of which was massive car bomb, killed 202 people last October, many of them Australian revellers.

Jakarta holds JI responsible for the Bali bombings.

Indonesian and Australian forensic officers picked through debris in the charred lobby. The blast was believed to have been triggered by a suicide bomber and a severed head was recovered, but police did not say if the sketch was of a suicide bomber.

National police chief Da'i Bachtiar told reporters that the head could be that of the suicide bomber.

The sketches of the man described as the buyer of the car showed a clean-shaven young man with broad lips. The car was sold two weeks ago to a buyer who gave no address.

Security had already been boosted in central Jakarta after police found the Marriott area on a list of potential targets last month when they arrested nine members of JI and found a huge cache of weapons and explosives on Java island, officials said.

One foreigner, a Dutch Rabobank executive, was among those killed. Singaporeans, Americans, Australians and several New Zealanders were among the wounded in the attack in an area that houses the Chinese embassy and smart diplomatic homes.

"There was information that explosive materials had entered Jakarta, and... information on strategic areas," Jakarta police spokesman Prasetyo told a news conference, referring to the raids in Java last month that netted 900 kilogrammes of potassium chlorate, 1,200 detonators and suspected JI members.

"We had anticipated it, including the Marriott Hotel where we had increased security," said Prasetyo. "But the problem is the car... blew up before it entered the secure parking area."

Security Minister Yudhoyono unveiled a new crackdown, including checks on vehicles before they neared building doors.

A key suspect on trial for the Bali bombings welcomed the blast. "I am happy. Thanks be to God, even more so if those who did it are Muslims," Imam Samudra said as he left court in Bali.

"Go to hell Australia," he shouted in broken English. Officials were cautious about linking JI to the blast, even as an unprecedented JI claim of responsibility appeared.

The Straits Times said a self-proclaimed JI operative made contact just hours after the blast and claimed responsibility.

The daily's Jakarta correspondent said the operative described the attack as a "bloody warning" to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri not to clamp down on militants.

"This is a message for her and all our enemies that, if they execute any of our Muslim brothers, we will continue this campaign of terror in Indonesia and the region," the operative was quoted as saying. The Bali suspects face the death penalty.

Australia feared more attacks. "We have particular concerns at the moment about central Jakarta, but also other places in Indonesia. There could be a further terrorist attack in the next day or so," Downer said.

"The 17th of August is Indonesia's National Day and that is a day when we think it's possible there could be a terrorist attack in the central Jakarta area," he told reporters.