Indonesian police warned yesterday of more suicide attacks in the capital after a truck bombing killed nine people and wounded more than 170 in front of the Australian Embassy.
"There are many suicide bombers still out there," said a top police official, who refused to be named. "There is the possibility of another attack, but it's difficult to predict where they will strike."
Police said they were searching for two suspected masterminds of Thursday's embassy attack who are still believed to be in Jakarta.
The men are identified as Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Top, who police allege are bomb-makers and are key members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group which has been blamed for the attack.
Investigators yesterday held a reconstruction of the bombing at the scene of the blast -- a routine practice in Indonesian criminal investigations. They retraced the moments when the white delivery van -- seen in dramatic footage taken from an embassy security camera -- swerved past a police truck stationed outside the heavily fortified mission and then blew up.
On Saturday, police said they recovered traces of TNT and sulfur -- explosives used in the bomb -- from a house in Jakarta rented in July by Azahari and Noordin Top. The man who sold the white van used in the suicide bombing was also being interrogated.
Local newspapers quoted neighbors as saying four men had rented the house for five days and were seen loading boxes into a pickup truck. They kept to themselves, neighbors said, and only ventured out to pray at a nearby mosque.
They left abruptly and a day later police showed up at the house.
"We are still facing a terrorist threat, especially from Azahari and Noordin Top," said Police Chief General Dai Bachtiar. "We are hunting them down."
Interrogations of six would-be suicide bombers arrested in late June revealed the pair had recruited militants to launch attacks on Western targets including hotels, banks and embassies, Bachtiar said.
The motive behind Thursday's bombing remains unclear. An Islamic Web site posted a message claiming Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible. It said the attack was aimed at Australia, whose vocal support for the US-led war in Iraq made it unpopular among militants in Southeast Asia.
Security has been stepped up across Jakarta, with embassies adding additional guards, barriers and, in some cases, closing roads in front of them.
The Australian Embassy warned that additional attacks "could not be ruled out" and urged its citizens to avoid the area around the mission, including a dozen apartment towers nearby where some Westerners live, until further notice. It came after the US Embassy e-mailed similar warnings to Americans.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has endured a string of terrorist attacks since 1999. All have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, including the Oct. 12, 2002, Bali bombings that killed 202 people and the Aug. 5, 2003, suicide attack on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel in which 12 perished.
Azahari and Noordin Top, who allegedly took part in the bombings, have managed to elude a massive police manhunt ever since.
Bachtiar said the pair had planned to launch an attack in July during the opening ceremony of an anti-terror center in the town of Semarang. He said that operation was canceled because of tight security.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Australian Justice Minister Chris Ellison attended the event.
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