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Police knew last month hotel was target

Police yesterday said they seized documents last month showing terrorists had planned to target the area around Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, where a powerful car bomb this week killed as many as 14 people and injured nearly 150.

The revelation came as authorities in Indonesia and Australia warned that more terror strikes were possible and investigators linked Tuesday's attack to last year's Bali bombings that have been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group.

After the documents were found, security forces increased patrols in the Marriott area. But the precautions weren't enough to prevent the suspected suicide attack, which has underscored the continuing threat of terrorism in the world's largest Muslim nation.

"There was a warning that there were some targets and we have been anticipating an attack," said Jakarta police spokesman Prasetyo, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

He said that the documents were seized in the central Java town of Semarang last month, when police arrested seven alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Officials also said they were investigating two men who allegedly purchased the vehicle used in the bombing, and planned to issue a composite sketch of one of the men later yesterday.

Jemaah Islamiyah allegedly claimed responsibility for the hotel bombing in remarks published by Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.

"This is a message for ... all our enemies that, if they execute any of our Muslim brothers, we will continue this campaign of terror in Indonesia and the region," the paper quoted an unnamed Jemaah Islamiyah operative as saying.

It couldn't be immediately determined if the claim was authentic.

Derwin Pereira, the Straits Times correspondent in Jakarta, said that two weeks ago he received a call from a "well-placed informant" saying there would be a major strike in Indonesia this month.

Pereira said the informant said he got the information from a Jemaah Islamiyah operative whom he refused to name. After the Marriott blast, Pereira said he pressed the informant to link him up with the source.

The informant, Pereira said, relented by getting the operative to call Pereira at his Jakarta office, some four hours after the attack at the Marriott.

Pereira said the alleged operative refused to identify himself but said the explosion was a "bloody warning" from Jemaah Islamiyah to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, demanding that she not crack down on the group's members in Indonesia.

Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday warned of more terrorist attacks in the vast archipelago, saying that the two court cases were reasons enough for Muslim extremists to lash out.

"The government would like to remind the people ... of the possibility of more terrorist attacks," Yudhoyono said.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had acquired intelligence in the hours after the bombing that there could be more terrorist attacks in Indonesia in the coming days. He did not say what the intelligence was.

"We think there is a real risk that there could be further attacks, including in central Jakarta," Downer told reporters in Adelaide.

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