•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

As bombs ripped into two of Jakarta’s most prestigious hotels, the specter of Indonesian terrorism once again cast its long shadow around the world. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono condemned the “cruel, inhuman and irresponsible bombing.”

“These actions are likely to have been conducted by terrorist groups, although it is uncertain whether they are from the terrorist network that we are already familiar with,” Yudhoyono said, in a clear reference to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has been blamed for a string of attacks going back to the Bali bombings in 2002, which killed 202 people.

The group was also blamed for the 2003 suicide bomb attack on the JW Marriott hotel that left 12 dead. In Friday’s attack, which occurred shortly before 8 a.m., bombers blew themselves up at two neighboring upscale hotels, the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton, leaving at least nine dead, including some foreigners, and more than 50 wounded.

“According to our preliminary site examination, they were suicide bombings,” National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. “We are trying to identify the two suicide bombers. The first, found at the Ritz-Carlton, is easier to identify than the suspect we found at the Marriott.”

Yudhoyono said the attacks were an attempt to set the country back.

“What we have built for the past five years, with hard work and the sweat of the entire Indonesian people, once again has to suffer from jolts and regression,” he said.

Indonesia had in recent years grown increasingly secure, he said, allowing the economy to progress and helping to heal the country’s image abroad. Democracy had flourished, respect for human rights was spreading, and the country was starting to play a greater role on the international stage.

A senior National Police officer told the Jakarta Globe that a third man was involved in the attacks. Police believe the three were linked to JI.

“They came [to the Marriott] looking just like hotel guests, neatly dressed, on Friday morning. Nobody suspected them, even a hotel security guard who let them in though the metal detector sounded when they passed with their bags and suitcase,” the officer said.

The suspects had booked a room on the 18th floor from Wednesday under the name Nur Rusdi, which is believed to be a fake name.

“A couple of minutes after they checked into their room, they left again. Before leaving, they activated a bomb, setting the bomb to explode in the room later, but, thank God, it failed to detonate,” the officer said.

One of three men went into the Marriott’s Sailendra restaurant toting a bag and a suitcase, and detonated a bomb there at 7:47 a.m. Another went to the Airlangga restaurant at the nearby Ritz-Carlton and blew himself up there 10 minutes later. The whereabouts of the third suspect are still unknown, he said.

Police said six bodies were later found at the Marriott and two others at the Ritz-Carlton. Fifty-three people were wounded and taken to hospitals.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Wahyono said police found and dismantled a third bomb containing black powder, ball bearings and bolts, in a room on the 18th floor at 11 a.m.

“These bombs appear to carry Azahari Husin’s trademark. He always used bolts to maximize the damage,” a top antiterror police officer told the Globe, referring to a key Malaysian terrorist shot dead during a police raid in Batu, East Java, in November 2005.

Azahari is believed to have taught others how to make explosive devices. Bambang said the police were searching for a man identified only by his initial, N, but declined to say whether JI was behind the blasts. He did say that bombs at both crime scenes were similar to those found at a house in Cilacap, Central Java, on Tuesday.

Police believe the daughter of the house owner was married to Noordin M Top, another key Malaysian terrorist suspect still on the loose.

“We, as a nation, as a state and as a people, should not be defeated and surrender to the terrorists,” Yudhoyono said. “We should not allow extremist violence and other crimes to continue to grow in this country.”