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| Southeast Asia |
| Indon: Guard recalls brush with Marriott bomber |
| 2010-02-23 |
| [Straits Times] A GUARD at an Indonesian hotel recalled on Monday a chilling exchange with an Islamic suicide bomber seconds before the extremist detonated his explosives in a room full of businessmen. JW Marriott employee Dikdik Ahmad Taufik was asked to give testimony at the trial of Amir Abdillah, 34, a suspected member of the terror network blamed for twin suicide attacks on Jakarta hotels which killed seven people in July. He said he saw a young man walking across the lobby towards him wearing a baseball cap low on his head, wheeling a suitcase and nursing a backpack on his chest. 'I was in the hotel lobby, security was very tight with a metal detector,' Mr Dikdik told the South Jakarta District Court. 'In front of the lounge I met a man carrying luggage and a backpack on his chest, he was wearing a brown jacket. I asked him what he wanted and he told me 'I want to deliver these things to my boss'.' The man was eighteen-year-old suicide bomber Dani Dwi Permana, and Mr Dikdik had questioned him just metres from his target: a meeting of mainly Western businessmen in an alcove off the lobby. Security camera footage of the attack showed an alert Mr Dikdik speak to Permana as he walked unsteadily but directly toward the meeting room, but the Islamist fanatic did not pause to make his response. A minute or two later the lobby of the upmarket hotel was devastated in a flash of heat and splintered debris as the bomber triggered his charges a short distance away down a narrow corridor. 'I'm sure that the explosion originated from the man's bag,' Mr Dikdik said from the witness stand. Five people were killed by the bomber in the meeting room where the CastleAsia consultancy was having a regular breakfast get-together, including two Australian diplomats and a well-respected company executive from New Zealand. Seconds later another Islamist blew himself up in a restaurant at the adjacent Ritz-Carlton hotel, killing two Dutch tourists as well as himself. |
| Posted by:Fred |