Bali bombing suspects linked to al-Qaida
Foreign Desk Report

BALI (Indonesia)—Indonesia said Sunday it suspected two fugitives linked to al-Qaida had masterminded the suicide bombings of crowded restaurants in tourist resorts on the Indonesian island of Bali which killed at least 26 people and injured more than 100. Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai, a top Indonesian anti-terror official, identified the two suspected masterminds as Malaysians alleged to be key members of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group. They are also accused of orchestrating the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, as well as two other attacks in the Indonesian capital in 2003 and 2004. The nightclub bombings, which also struck venues crowded with tourists on a Saturday night, killed 202 people, most of them foreigners.
In the latest attacks, three suicide bombers wearing explosive vests set off near-simultaneous explosions that devastated three restaurants crowded with diners on Saturday night. “The modus operandi of Saturday’s attacks is the same as the earlier ones,” said Mbai, who identified the two suspected masterminds as Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top. He said the two were not believed to be among the three suicide attackers. The assailants’ remains were found at the bombing scenes but they have not yet been identified, he said. “I have seen them. All that is left is their head and feet,” he told. “By the evidence we can conclude the bombers were carrying the explosives around their waists.”
Video footage of one of the blasts showed groups of tourists, many of them apparently Westerners, seated at candlelit tables talking and sipping drinks in the seconds before the explosion. The footage, obtained by Associated Press Television News, then shows a bright flash accompanied by a loud bang and gusts of black smoke. It was not immediately clear whether the three suicide bombers were included in the death toll which climbed to 26 on Sunday, according to Sanglah Hospital spokesman Putu Putra Wisada. Six Americans were among the injured. Long lines formed at checkout counters at Bali’s international airport with a steady stream of taxis dropping off passengers. “We were up all night trying to change our ticket,” said Veli-Matti Enqvist, 51, who had been scheduled to leave Bali with his wife on Wednesday. The couple was walking on the beach when they heard the blasts. “We finally found something ... we’re going.”
After the 2002 bombings, there was an immediate and massive evacuation of foreign visitors which devastated the island’s tourist industry. The latest bombings struck two seafood cafes in the Jimbaran beach resort and a three-story noodle and steakhouse in downtown Kuta. Kuta is the bustling tourist center of Bali where the two nightclubs were bombed three years ago. The latest attacks came a month after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned of possible terrorist attacks. On Saturday, he blamed terrorists and warned that more attacks were possible. The president was in Bali on Sunday to see the devastation firsthand. “We will hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” he said.
Western and Indonesian intelligence agencies have warned repeatedly that Jemaah Islamiyah was plotting more attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim country. Last month, Yudhoyono said he was especially worried the extremist network was about to strike. “I received information at the time that terrorists were planning an action in Jakarta and that explosives were ready,” he said Saturday. Dozens of people, most of them Indonesian, waited in tears outside the morgue in Sanglah Hospital, near the island’s capital Denpasar, for news of friends and relatives missing since the attacks.