A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Marriott hotel in downtown Jakarta yesterday, killing 13 people and wounding nearly 150 in what an official said was likely a suicide attack. At least one foreigner, a Dutch citizen, was reportedly among the dead.
Shattered glass and puddles of blood covered the ground for two blocks around the hotel, a popular place for visiting foreigners and diplomats in a business district near many embassies.
"People were screaming, panicking," said Sodik, a witness who was having lunch on the 27th floor of an adjacent building. "I thought it was an earthquake."
Black smoke billowed from the front of the Marriott, a regular venue for receptions held by the US Embassy. During the past two years, US officials have held Fourth of July celebrations at the hotel.
Indonesia's Vice President Hamzah Haz said the attack may have been targeted against US interests in the country. "I think it is possible that was what was behind it," he said.
Indonesian security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government had ordered strict security checks at the airport and other public places, and said officials would announce even stronger security measures today.
Calling the blast a "diabolical and inhumane terrorist attack," he added: "We cannot allow any space for terrorism."
"We strongly condemn this attack," said Tim Gerhardson, a US Embassy spokesman in Jakarta.
He said US authorities remain confident in the Indonesian government's ability to rein in terrorism and protect American interests in the country. However, he said a US State Department advisory warning Americans to defer all non-essential travel to Indonesia remains in effect.
"Private Americans are at risk as well as embassy personnel," he said.
An Associated Press photographer on the scene minutes after the blast saw three badly burned bodies lying on the ground outside the badly damaged hotel and the adjacent Plaza Mutiara office building.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. But since last year's blasts in Bali, which killed 202 people, authorities have warned that more attacks were likely in Indonesia -- possibly by Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror group linked to al-Qaeda.
Its alleged leader, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, is facing trial for treason over a series of bombings in 2000. About three dozen alleged Jemaah Islamiyah members are also accused in the Bali blasts and could be executed if convicted.
Yesterday's bomb rocked the capital just two days before the first verdict is expected in a series of trials in Bali.
A US official, asking that his name not be used, said the latest blast bore the hallmarks of a Jemaah Islamiyah attack, but stressed that most of the casualties appear to be Indonesians, not foreigners.
"It's definitely a trademark of Jemaah Islamiyah to cause as many casualties as possible in high profile attacks," the official said.
The Indonesian Red Cross put the death toll at 13, adding that 149 people were wounded.
Hans Winkelmolen, president of PT Rabobank Duta Indonesia, a Dutch national, was among the dead, said a company spokeswoman. The bank is majority-owned by Rabobank of the Netherlands.
The official Antara news agency reported that eight foreigners -- two Americans, two Singaporeans, two Chinese, and one each from Australia and New Zealand -- were among the injured.
Gerhardson of the US Embassy said that two Americans were injured in the explosion. One was treated and released and the other was still being treated yesterday evening, he said.
Ten employees of New Zealand's dairy company Fonterra were among those injured, a company spokesman said in Wellington.
Police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said officials suspected the explosives had been placed in an Indonesian-made Kijang van, adding that its chassis number had already been discovered along with the vehicle's registration number.
He said that body parts had been found near the wrecked vehicle, saying police were investigating whether they were those of bystanders or the suspected perpetrator.
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