| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Indonesian police imposing terror alert say (more) bombs found |
| 2004-12-17 |
| Indonesian police said Friday they had found two separate collections of bombs as they imposed a major alert following foreign warnings of an impending terror strike. The discovery came as police were being deployed across Indonesia in a huge security operation after Australia said terrorists may be plotting to strike in the run up to Christmas, specifically naming the Hilton hotel chain. Britain and the United States have also warned that their citizens in Indonesia over Christmas and the New Year faced a "heightened risk" of attack. New Zealand has cautioned against non-essential travel to the country. National police chief Da'i Bachtiar told reporters that nine tubes of explosives were found Friday on a bus in West Java, a heavily-populated area thought to be a major recruiting ground for Islamic extremists. "These are home-made bombs. We are trying to find out who carried them," Bachtiar said. News reports also said police in Riau province on Sumatra island on Wednesday had found four similar suspected bombs and literature on the Jemaah Islamiyah regional extremist group. Jemaah Islamiyah is blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed; an attack on the Jakarta Marriott hotel last year which killed 12; and the Australian embassy bombing. Two men accused of key roles in the attacks, Malaysians Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top, have eluded authorities for the past two years and police say they remain dangerous as they try to recruit followers for further attacks. Bachtiar said information from Islamic militants held for the Australian embassy bombing, in which 11 people died, indicated that a new strike could be timed to coincide with major holidays such as Christmas and the New Year. The police chief said security had been boosted at churches, shopping malls and hotels in the run-up to the festive season, with three quarters of the police force's 250,000 personnel on standby. |
| Posted by:phil_b |