Blast probe focuses on seven suspects

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.