Indonesian police announced yesterday the identity of the suspected suicide bomber who attacked the Australian Embassy, and said the 30-year-old had written a letter to his wife asking permission to die a martyr.
Police chief General Dai Bachtiar said Heri Golun was driving the small truck that blew up outside the embassy on Sept. 9 killing nine people, including himself, and wounding more than 170 others. All the dead were Indonesians.
"[Golun] carried the bomb in the car," Bachtiar said. "He died with that bomb."
DNA samples from body parts and blood samples found in or very close to the remains of the truck matched those taken from Golun's family, Bachtiar said.
Chief detective Lieutenant General Suyitno Landung said police had recovered a letter addressed to Golun's wife in which he asks permission to take part in a suicide mission.
"The letter asks for forgiveness, and permission to die as a martyr," he said. "It asks that his family repay all his debts and name his child Achmad Jundullah." Landung said the child had already been born, but did not say when.
He said Golun, who comes from a small town 250km east of Jakarta, had very strong links with the attack's alleged masterminds, Malaysian militants Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top.
Officers have said they suspect Golun was a suicide bomber, but have yet to rule out the possibility he was duped into carrying the bomb before it was detonated by remote control.
The attack has been blamed on the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, which also implicated in the 2002 Bali attacks and a blast last year outside the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Police have arrested five people in connection with the blast.
RSS