Blast investigators get down to forensics

Indonesian police yesterday analyzed blood and DNA samples from unidentified body parts found inside the van that blew up outside Jakarta's Marriott Hotel and a forensic chief said it was unclear whether it was a suicide bombing.

Officials said evidence at the scene showed that the bomb was detonated by a mobile phone -- the same method allegedly used by the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah in last year's Bali bombings.

In Australia, authorities warned that Indonesia might be hit by more terror attacks ahead of its national day on Aug. 17. Prime Minister John Howard also repeated a warning that much of Southeast Asia remained at risk.

In Jakarta, Brigadier General Dudon, the chief forensics specialist, said vital clues in the Marriott attack may have been washed away when firefighters used water to put out the blaze.

"Our work has been hampered by the fire brigade who tried to put out the fire, and also by the sprinkler system," he said.

Dudon said it was still not possible to determine whether the attack had been carried out by a suicide bomber. Several Indonesian officials had earlier said it may have been.

National police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Zainuri Lubis denied a media report that officers already knew the identity of the man believed to have been driving the vehicle that blew up Tuesday outside the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Jakarta.

Investigators said they were using video evidence taken from the hotel's security cameras to see if they could help identify the driver of the vehicle.

At least 10 people were killed and 150 injured in the attack. In the confused aftermath, the Indonesian Red Cross put the death toll at 14.

"I can only confirm that we are trying to analyze DNA and blood samples found inside the vehicle," he said.

On Wednesday, police released a composite sketch of a man who may have been behind the wheel.

Suspicion is strengthening that Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda linked group blamed for last year's Bali bombings, was also behind the Marriott attack.

A verdict in the trial of Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, a key suspect in the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, was expected later yesterday. He grinned and yelled "Bomb!" when asked about the Marriott attack during a peer's trial in Bali.

The blast was a bloody reminder of the threat of terror in the world's most populous Muslim nation, which had won plaudits for its investigation into the Bali bombings.

Major General Made Pastika, who led the Bali investigation, said yesterday that in both cases attackers used mobile phones to detonate car bombs. Also like the perpetrators of the Bali bombers, the Marriott attackers used both TNT and RDX explosives, he said.

In addition, police said the bombers in both cases sanded down the chassis numbers on their respective vehicles in an attempt to shield their identities.

"The threat is still there and we have to increase our security," Pastika told reporters in Bali.

Both Australia and Indonesian have warned of more terrorist attacks, saying the trials of Jemaah Islamiyah members were reason enough for Muslim extremists to lash out.

A US official in Washington said on condition of anonymity that the hotel blast had the hallmarks of previous attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah, whose alleged goal is to set up a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

Neighboring Australia has urged its citizens to defer travel to Indonesia and, if there, consider leaving.

"There could be a further terrorist attack in the next week or so and it's very important that people take that warning seriously," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters. "The 17th of August is Indonesia's National Day and that is a day when we think it's possible there could be a terrorist attack in the central Jakarta area."