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Army joins hunt for Bali bombers

A policeman guards a restaurant which was hit by last Saturday's bomb blast in Jimbaran on Bali, yesterday. Bali's Muslim minority community has begun the holy fasting month of Ramadan just days after suspected Muslim extremists killed at least 22 people in coordinated bombings. PHOTO: AFP

Indonesia's military will join a nationwide hunt for those behind the weekend suicide bombings in Bali, a senior officer said yesterday, as police confirmed three more Australians were among the dead.

Hundreds of thousands of police have already been mobilized to track down the masterminds of the attacks on three packed restaurants on Bali. The three young bombers killed themselves and 22 others on Saturday night, and 146 were wounded.

The prime targets in the manhunt are Malaysian Islamic militants, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Top. Officials say they are the leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network, blamed for a series of earlier attacks in Indonesia, including one in Bali three years ago which killed 202 people.

"In this case we will coordinate with Indonesian police by sharing intelligence information [and] are instructed to re-activate the territorial command," Indonesia military spokesman Achmad Yani Basuki said.

"Our personnel will be placed in villages to gain information from common people. We call on the people to share with us any information," he added.

The concept of a military territorial command structure reaching down to the village level is controversial. During the decades-long rule of autocrat president Suharto, which ended in 1998, it was seen as a tool for enforcing his iron-fisted control. But Indonesia military commander General Endriartono Sutarto has said abuse will not happen this time.

The move came after President Bambang Susilo Yudhohoyono, himself a former general, said in a speech on Wednesday that he had asked for help from the military in the anti-terror fight. Police say they have questioned at least 94 people about the attacks but have thus far named no suspects.

He said police were intensifying their search outside Bali for people involved in the bombing, including in Banten Province west of Jakarta, where five people connected to the 2002 Bali blasts have been sought for questioning.

Artanto said forensics experts had confirmed the identities of three more Australians killed in Bali, bringing the total from that country who were killed to four.

Indonesia has been fighting violent extremists with mixed success since the first Bali bombings in 2002. Despite numerous arrests and convictions in that case, a car bomb hit a luxury hotel in Jakarta in 2003, and another exploded outside the Australian embassy in 2004.

Despite the latest attacks tourists continued to arrive in Bali, the most popular destination for foreigners.

"I have been here for one day, I have been loving it. And I want to support the people here," said Christian Herold, 23, a tourist from Dresden, Germany.

The first attack in 2002 devastated the tourist trade in Bali, but it picked up steam last year and experts think the latest bombings will have less effect.

widening the search

Indonesia widened its search for suspects in last weekend's suicide attacks on Bali island, calling yesterday on local authorities across the sprawling nation to monitor and report suspicious activity.

Police were hunting for the militants who ordered the highly coordinated and near simultaneous attacks on three restaurants crowded with foreign tourists, as well as those who made the explosives.

Police have circulated nationwide photographs of the three bombers' bruised severed heads, recovered from sites of the attacks on the island, visited by around 400,000 tourists each month.

"All regional police chiefs are investigating suspicious activities in their areas," said police spokesman Major General Ariyanto Budiharjo. "The suicide bombers did not work alone. Someone must have ordered them. Someone must have made the explosives."

Investigators across the country were interrogating jailed terror convicts, checking if they recognized the bombers, Bali police said.

Officers have revealed little about the continuing probe, fearing that information released to media could help people linked to the attacks stay one step ahead of them.

Authorities have also questioned Balinese residents who are not native to the island.

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