JAKARTA (AFP)--Indonesian police Monday were trying to rebuild
the face on a severed head found at the scene of deadly hotel
blasts in Jakarta in an attempt to identify one of two suspected
suicide bombers.
The grisly forensic work could provide a key breakthrough in the
investigation into Friday's twin suicide attacks on the luxury JW
Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which killed up to nine people
including two militants.
One of the bombers apparently targeted a regular weekly
breakfast gathering of Western businessmen at the Marriott, killing
three Australians including a diplomat, and a company executive
from New Zealand.
More than 53 people were injured in the blasts, which officials
suspect were the work of regional Islamist network Jemaah
Islamiyah, or JI, responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks and dozens
of other bombings since the late 1990s.
Jemaah Islamiyah draws inspiration from Al Qaeda and has had
extensive links with global jihadists as it seeks to create an
Islamic caliphate spanning much of Southeast Asia including
Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines.
Police said an unexploded bomb left in a guest room of the JW
Marriott resembled devices used in the Bali bombings, which killed
202 people, and one discovered in a recent anti-JI raid on an
Islamic school in Central Java.
"They are from the same school. We found similar materials,
similar tools, a similar method. That's their job, that's the same
network, they are JI," national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna
said Sunday.
He said investigators were reconstructing the mangled face on a
head found at one of the hotels, with a view to creating an image
that could be shown to witnesses.
Police say nine people were killed and 53 injured in the
attacks. Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda on Saturday put the death
toll at eight.
Security has been tightened at hotels and resorts across the
vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people, including
the eastern resort island of Bali, which is usually packed with
foreign tourists, especially Australians.
Australia issued a travel advisory urging citizens to reconsider
traveling to the country and warning that more extremist attacks
are possible.
"There is a possibility of further terrorist attacks in Jakarta
and elsewhere in Indonesia, including Bali," it said in the updated
advisory.
Investigators say the bombers stayed in Room 1808 of the
Marriott for two nights before the attacks and disguised themselves
as guests when they walked into crowded dining and meeting areas
and detonated their suitcase devices.
The bombs were brought into the neighboring hotels despite
airport-style security measures put in place after the 2002 Bali
attacks.
A report in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Monday
suggested the Marriott bomber was very deliberate about his target
- the weekly business breakfast which attracted some of Jakarta's
most influential foreigners.
It said the Marriott bomber was a man wearing a backpack on his
chest and dragging a suitcase who was caught by security cameras
entering the dining area shortly before the blast, although police
have not confirmed this.
A security guard asked him where he was going and the man, who
looked Indonesian, replied that he was going to meet his boss.
"I want to deliver what my boss ordered," the man reportedly
said.
Senior Indonesian antiterrorist officials have said the attacks
look like the work of fugitive Malaysian-born extremist Noordin
Mohammed Top, who leads a violent splinter faction of JI.
One of Asia's most wanted men, Noordin is accused of
masterminding bombings at the Jakarta Marriott in 2003, the
Australian embassy in 2004 and Bali restaurants in 2005, which
killed more than 40 people.