Blast probe focuses on seven suspects
I Wayan Juniartha and Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Jakarta
Indonesia intelligence authorities are focusing on a group of seven "foreigners" suspected to have masterminded and carried out the deadly Bali bombings.
A top-level source told The Jakarta Post the terrorist cell was said to be have been led by a Yemeni and his Malaysian deputy.
The nationalities of the other five are unknown, but a second source said one was a European and two had links to a series of bombings in the Philippines.
The first source revealed the group entered the country through Central Java's capital city of Semarang on Oct. 10, where they prepared the explosives. The source added the clues revolved around telephone calls made from a house in Surakarta, Central Java, to the Middle East.
The second source also said sdeveral investigators, including foreigner investigators, had arrived in Surakarta to follow leads that have resulted from the ongoing investigation.
Indonesia is being assisted by investigators and intelligence officers from Australia, Britain, Germany, Japan and the United States.
Police are questioning two men "intensively" but it remains unclear whether the two men are from the group of seven suspects. Attempts to seek confirmation from the police about the suspects were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile police denied a foreign newspaper report that a former Air Force officer, identified as Dedi Masrukhin, who had confessed to building the bomb, was in detention. An Air Force spokesman said the former officer had been released from custody.
"It's not true that we have arrested the officer for alleged involvement in the bombing. We are only questioning him because he is an expert in explosives and also lives in Bali," Indonesian Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf told reporters in Jakarta.
Earlier on Wednesday The Washington Post reported that police had arrested the ex-officer who confessed to building the bomb that had left more than 180 people dead and hundreds others injured.
Quoting security sources, the Post said the man regretted the huge loss of life in last weekend's attacks. It also said the ex- officer had learned to handle explosives in the U.S. while serving in the Air Force. He was dismissed in 2001 for misconduct. At that time he was a lieutenant colonel.
"The Air Force, as an institution or individuals, has no involvement in the blasts whatsoever," Air Force spokesman Air First Marshall Edy Hardjoko said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Edy said the retired officer's quick release from police custody should provide enough evidence that there had not been an indication of the Air Force's involvement in the strikes.
Saleh also confirmed that National Police had assigned Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika to lead the investigation team.
In the latest update, Bali Police chief Brig. Gen. Budi Setyawan said the police were continuing to interrogate two Indonesian witnesses, neither of whom were Balinese.
The two were among the more than 50 people who had been intensively questioned so far.