The perpetrators of the deadly car bombing at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel trained with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Indonesia's defense minister said, adding that there are many more terrorists still in the country.
"Each one of them has special abilities received from training in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Matori Abdul Djalil said late Friday.
He said that the bombers were linked to a group of people arrested last month in the eastern town of Semarang and alleged to be members of the al-Qaeda linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
"There are many more Jemaah Islamiyah members on the loose in Indonesia ... Because of this I am sure that JI is behind all of this,'' he said.
Matori said the terror group was behind both Tuesday's Marriott blast, which killed 10 people and injured 150, and the Oct. 12 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
Matori made his comments to reporters in the eastern city of Makassar. A tape of the comments reached The Associated Press yesterday.
Last month, police seized four bags of TNT, 25 sacks of potassium chlorate and over 1,000 detonators from JI members in Semarang, Central Java, which they said had the potential to cause even more carnage than the Bali explosions.
This cell also had a list of potential targets in Jakarta -- including the area where the Marriott was located.
Matori said that nine suspects arrested during the raid had helped plan the Marriott bombing.
Meanwhile, the US warned that extremists may be planning more terror attacks against American interests in Indonesia.
"The potential remains throughout Indonesia for violence and terrorist actions against US citizens and interests," the US State Department said on its Web site yesterday.
"Extremist elements may be planning additional attacks targeting US interests in Indonesia, particularly US government officials and facilities."
The State Department said it would increase security at its official facilities but warned citizens that terrorists will likely seek "softer targets."
Indonesian national police spokesman Zainuri Lubis said yesterday guards with M-16 rifles and shotguns would be deployed to protect commercial buildings across the country.
"It is our obligation to secure American interests because it is also in our nation's interest," he said. "The police will secure American officials."
Authorities have already said Jakarta's hotel attack was similar to last October's Bali blasts.
The perpetrators in both attacks used the same kind of explosives and tried to scrape off the identification numbers on the vehicles used. Police believe the Marriott bombers used a mobile phone to set it off -- a method also used in the Bali attack.
The severed head of a suspected suicide bomber, Asmar Latin Sani, was found in the wreckage at the hotel. Authorities said a photograph of Sani's reconstructed head was identified by two alleged JI operatives currently in custody -- and that the two men admitted to having recruited him to the organization.
Police spokesman Edward Aritonang said authorities are not dismissing a claim from another al-Qaeda linked group -- the Abu Hafs el-Masri Brigades -- which claimed responsibility for the attack in a letter sent to London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arab and published Friday.
The Abu Hafs el-Masri Brigades described the attack as "a strong slap in the face of America and its agents in Islamic Jakarta, which has been cursed by the dirty American and the bold and racist Australian presence."
There was no way to confirm the claim of responsibility by the previously unknown cell. Abu Hafs el-Masri was the alias of Mohammad Atef, a top lieutenant of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who was killed by US airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.
JI is accused of plotting or carrying out attacks in several Southeast Asian nations. An Indonesian court on Thursday issued the first verdict in the October 2002 Bali bombings, sentencing to death Amrozi bin Nurhasyim for buying the van and explosives used in the attack.
Defense lawyers said Friday they would appeal the death sentence.
Thirty-three other suspected JI members are either on trial or awaiting trial in the Bali attack.
Late on Friday, mourners packed into a hospital room in Jakarta for a memorial service for the only foreigner killed in the Marriott blast: Hans Winkelmolen, the general manager of Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank.
Winkelmolen was due to be replaced by Canadian Tony Costa -- who was also injured in the Marriott explosion. Costa was flown to Singapore the day of the bombing and treated for smoke inhalation and chest pains.
They were having lunch at the Marriott Hotel's lobby cafe when the blast went off.
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