Police find powerful bombs, detonators

Police find powerful bombs, detonators

Agencies, Jakarta

Police said on Tuesday they had found cache of weapons, including two powerful bombs, buried in the yard of an empty house in the Central Java town of Purwokerto.

The cache, which also included 16 detonators and 470 rounds of ammunition, was unearthed on Monday after a workman found three bullets while doing repairs in the house.

There have been no arrests and police are questioning the owner of the house, identified as Haidar.

Banyumas Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Erwin Triwanto said the bombs were made of materials similar to trinitrotoluene.

Erwin added that the bullets and explosives were commonly used by the police.

"We are still tracing the owner of the goods, and trying to find the last person who rented the house," Erwin said.

Haidar told the police his house had been leased for quite sometime, with the last tenant being a youth whose contract expired a few months ago.

Erwin declined to identify the youth, saying the police were still hunting him down.

Police have warned that isolated regions and small towns are favorite hiding grounds for terrorist groups responsible for bombings in various parts of the country, including Jakarta, over the past years.

Recent deadly attacks in Indonesia include blasts that killed 202 people in Bali in 2002 and others in Jakarta in 2003 and 2004 that have been blamed on the Al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah regional terror group.

Two key members of the group, Malaysian bomb experts Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Moh. Top, head the police's wanted list.