Car bomb blast injures one in Palu

Car bomb blast injures one in Palu

A small bomb exploded on a minibus in Central Sulawesi province
on Thursday, injuring one person, police said.

Maj. Sambas Kurniawan, a local police chief, said it was not
immediately clear who was behind the early afternoon blast, which
occurred in a region that for years has been plagued by sectarian
violence.

Eleven people were on the bus that was traveling from the
predominantly Muslim provincial capital of Palu to the largely
Christian town of Tentena, he said, adding that a 54-year-old man
was injured.

Central Sulawesi was the scene of a bloody war between
Christians and Muslims in 2001-2002 that killed around 1,000
people from both communities.

An attack at Tentena Market in Poso regency in May killed 22
people.

Kurniawan described Thursday's bomb as a low-intensity device
that contained sulfur and ball bearings.

He said one woman told police she saw two men put what
appeared to be a backpack under one of the van's seats before it
departed, but that she had no idea at the time it was a bomb.

Thursday's explosion went off near Toboli, a village in Parigi
district, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of Jakarta.
--AP