Suicide bomber of Australian embassy named

Suicide bomber of Australian embassy named

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The National Police officially named on Friday the suspected
suicide bomber who perpetrated the Sept. 9 bombing outside the
Australian Embassy, which killed 10 people and injured over 180
others.

DNA tests comparing samples found at the blast site with
tissue and blood from suspects' families confirmed the bomber's
identity as Heri Golun alias Heri Kurniawan, National Police
chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said.

"We suspect he is the suicide bomber who drove the bomb van
and died in the blast," he told a press conference.

Da'i said two samples of blood from the families of suspected
bombers from Central and East Java were being matched with body
fragments from the blast site to determine if there were any
other bombers in the van.

The police also released a picture of Heri, 30, that was taken
in December 2003.

Heri alias Igun or Agun was a resident of Kampung Ranji in
Cigarung Village, Kebon Pedes district, Sukabumi regency, West
Java. His parents have reportedly been identified as Didin Raydin
and Anah Hasanah, also residents of Cigarung village.

On Thursday, Heri's wife, Sitem, reportedly delivered a baby
in Cibuhaya village, Rengas Dengklok, West Java. The baby boy was
named Ahmad Jundullah. Heri had sought the consent of his wife
while she was pregnant to die as a martyr, according to the
police.

National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung
Sudjono confirmed that Heri was the suicide bomber as the DNA
from nine separate body fragments found inside the van matched
the DNA of his parents.

Da'i also said the police had found the house from which the
van carrying the bomb left 12 hours before the actual bombing.
"We are still investigating whether the house was used to
assemble the bomb or whether it was just used for transit
purposes," he added.

The police chief said a number of detained bomb suspects
admitted that they were activists of the outlawed Indonesian
Islamic State (NII) movement.

"We are investigating to see whether there are links between
the bombing and this movement, although we have discovered no
documents affirming a relationship between them," Da'i added.

Several media reports have said that Heri and another suspect,
Rois alias Iwan Darmawan, who remains at large, were NII members.
Rois is believed to be one of suspected terror mastermind Azahari
bin Husin's closest aides.

Some NII leaders were reportedly co-founders of the regional
Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network, which has been blamed for a
series of bombings in Indonesia.

The police said that Rois and Heri were members of a West Java
suicide bomb squad and were recruited by JI's Azahari and Noordin
Moh. Top between February and June of this year.

Azahari and Noordin, the two Malaysian fugitives, allegedly
masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, and
last year's JW Marriott Hotel attack, which claimed 12 lives.

Police said that the suspected suicide bomber or bombers who
perpetrated the latest bombing in front of the Australian
Embassy, Jakarta, had been among the new recruits.

The police arrested over 30 people before and after the
embassy explosion, but have only named six of them as suspects.

All of the detained suspects are accused of harboring Azahari
and Noordin and helping transport explosives for the Sept. 9
bombing.