Another bomb found at Pancoran blast site

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police's bomb squad (Gegana) found yet another pipe bomb on Friday afternoon among the rubble left by Tuesday's bomb blast in a two-story boardinghouse in Pancoran, South Jakarta.

The finding of the live bomb brings the total number of pipe bombs that have been found intact in and around the crime scene to eight, with 22 others having already exploded on Tuesday, according to the National Police Forensics Laboratory.

The latest bomb was found in the room of Edi Susilo, who remains a suspect at large, Jakarta Police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Adang Rochana told reporters on Friday.

"The location of the blasts on Tuesday was Edi's room. This was apparently being used to store the bombs ... I don't think this is where the bombs were assembled."

The blasts on Tuesday morning injured five people, and damaged at least four cars and four houses. No fatalities were reported.

Police are still trying to find out what caused the explosives to detonate.

While police detectives worked round-the-clock and teams traveled to Sumatra and Kalimantan in search of Edi Susilo, who is reportedly a car dealer in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob spent his time "exercising" with his colleagues from the Indonesian Military (TNI) at the Jakarta Traffic Police's parking lot on Jl. Sudirman.

Hundreds of police officers also took part in Friday's mass exercise class which was the third of its kind since exercise classes started being held by TNI and police officers at the Army's Airborne Unit headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta, and marine headquarters in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

The "exercise" classes have been widely rumored to be fronts for police and military officers to hold meetings on security issues after the workouts.

After Friday's workout, commander of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command Let. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said that there was no way that an active TNI officer could be involved in the recent spate of bombings.

"Besides, it is not only the military who can assemble bombs. Nowadays, anybody can do it and can get the materials for it," Ryamizard told reporters.(ylt/02)