Police said yesterday they have uncovered a key piece of evidence that will strengthen their case against two of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects blamed for the lethal suicide bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Indonesia.
Investigators have found the chassis number of the van that carried the bomb, Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty said in Sydney. He said the discovery was a vital link to the bombers, who killed nine and injured more than 170 last Thursday.
PHOTO: AP
Dozens of Australian federal police officers are involved in the Jakarta investigation, including several who also took part in the hunt for those responsible for the October 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.
"For people who remember the Bali bombings it was the chassis number that led to the early identification of those involved," Keelty said.
The top two suspects in last week's blast are Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Top, two Malaysians who authorities say are key members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked group. Police are pursuing a massive manhunt for the pair and have warned of more suicide attacks.
Police hope the chassis number will help link the two men to the delivery van used in the attack.
"Because these two are still at large, we have to be alert," Lieutenant General Suyitno Landung said. "We're searching for them. We're asking people to report any suspicious activity in their neighborhoods."
Meanwhile, Australia plans to move its Jakarta embassy because the current 10-year-old building is too small and its location on a busy road too dangerous, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
The Australian consulate in Bali also will be moved to a more secure area, an official said on condition of anonymity.
Security has been stepped up in Jakarta since Thursday, with embassies, shopping malls and hotels adding guards and barriers. Some roads have been closed.
"We have been stepping up security at buildings as well as strategic and vital places," President Megawati Sukarnoputri said after a Cabinet meeting. "I call on the people to cooperate with the government to maintain the security all over Indonesia."
Police officer Landung also said investigators were questioning a former owner of the truck used in the attack and taking DNA samples from relatives of at least three suspected suicide bombers to see if they match any body parts recovered at the scene.
At the bomb site, hundreds of police officers laid red roses, yellow sunflowers and white daisies at the embassy gate. At least two of the seriously injured victims were police officers guarding the embassy.
"We came here to pay our respects to the victims of this bloody bombings," said Retired Major Purnomo, clutching a bouquet of red roses. "This bombing is really touching our hearts."
Azahari, a British-trained engineer who taught bomb-making classes in Afghanistan and the Philippines, and Noordin, a university graduate and an explosives expert, have reportedly eluded capture at least five times in the past year.
A top police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said authorities believed the two men were still in the country, probably near Jakarta, the capital. He said Azahari and Noordin easily find shelter from Islamic extremists in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Indonesia has endured a series of terror attacks since 1999, all of them blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. The worst were the Bali bombings and a suicide attack on Jakarta's J.W. Marriott Hotel that killed 12 last year.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS