Skip to main content

Investigations Continue into Jakarta Terrorist Bombings







18 July 2009

Forensic investigators examine the ruins at the site of the bomb blast at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 18 Jul 2009
Forensic investigators examine the ruins at the site of the bomb blast at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 18 Jul 2009
Investigations continued Saturday into the Friday bombings at two hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia that left nine people dead and at least 50 injured. Little information about the bombings is being released to the public.

On Saturday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the sites where two bombs exploded at the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.

On Friday the president said the bombings were acts of terrorism but he made no statement during the visits.

The governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo visited victims injured in the blasts. At one hospital he visited, he said of the 17 that were admitted yesterday, only seven remain in intensive care. The governor also said one of the victims was a Marriott Hotel security guard who was also injured in the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing.

He says the guard was severely burned last time and has a healed scar on his hand. This time, he says, the burns are not as severe but the man is in shock.







Investigations into the cause of the bombings are underway. The police have so far made no public statements beyond confirming that suicide bombers were responsible for the attacks, and that the perpetrators were posing as guests at the Marriott Hotel. Health officials have confirmed that Americans, Australians, Canadians and a New Zealander were among the victims of the bombings.

No official suspects have been named, but analysts say it is likely be the work of Jemaah Islamiyah or a breakaway faction of the group. The al-Qaida-linked network is blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, including the 2003 bombing at the Marriott in which 12 people died.

The Governor of Jakarta says from looking at the Marriott Hotel surveillance tape recorded just before the blast, they have determined that the perpetrators planted the bombs in their luggage.

He says there is an indication that the source of one of the explosions was inside heavy luggage being carried into the hotel restaurant.

Friday's blasts raised questions about security gaps at high-end hotels. Hotels have become popular targets for militants in recent years, most notably in Mumbai, India, where attacks in November of 2008 killed more than 160 people.

The governor says Indonesian authorities are considering requiring that guests check all luggage before being allowed into hotel restaurants.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...

Army: Gunmen kill Indonesia soldier in Papua

 Associated Press, Jayapura | Thu, 07/21/2011 6:47 PM An army officer says unidentified gunmen have ambushed Indonesia soldiers and killed one of them in the easternmost province of Papua. The chief army officer in Papua says soldiers are still searching for the gunmen. Maj. Gen. Erfi Triassunu said the ambush Thursday morning happened outside a village in the hilly district of Puncak Jaya. Triassunu said the victim was a first private killed by a shot to his head. No information was available on the other soldiers. The attack occurred one day after a military tribunal indicted three low-ranking soldiers for killing a civilian in Puncak Jaya last year. Papua is a former Dutch colony incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot. A small, poorly armed separatist movement has battled for independence ever since.