Suicide bombers blamed for attack
Suicide bombers blamed for attack
Agencies, Kuta, Bali
Suicide bombers staged the latest blasts which killed at least 22 people and wounded more than 100 on the resort island of Bali, the government said on Sunday.
A chilling video, presented by police, showed one of the bombers walking into a restaurant packed with holidaymakers before exploding in a ball of fire.
"This is a suicide bombing, this is our intention for showing this video," Bali Police chief I Made Mangku Pastika said at a press conference where the footage was aired.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the sites where near-simultaneous bombs ripped apart three crowded restaurants on Saturday evening and vowed "terrorism" would be met with a tougher national response.
"The result of the investigation so far indicates that the bombings were carried out by suicide bombers," he said. "It is obvious that we need to take more effective action to anticipate suicide bombings."
Susilo warned that terrorists could be planning more strikes in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. "The terrorists are still looking for soft targets," he said after observing the blast sites.
Pastika said that at least six people conspired to carry out the Saturday blasts, including the three suicide bombers.
"I am certain that there are others involved in this bombing. There are those who planned it, there were those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs and they are the ones we must search for."
Police only identified the three suicide bombers by their initials as A, G, and S.
A police source said plainclothes officers from the counter-terror squad were questioning residents in housing complexes on Jl. Pulau Batanta, Jl. Pulau Misol and Jl. Sedap Malam in southern Denpasar to gather information about the three suicide bombers.
The source said the bombers' accomplices were believed to have fled to East Java.
The video, shot by a man whose identity is being kept secret for his protection, showed the bomber enter the Raja restaurant in Bali's Kuta entertainment district and walk slowly between the busy tables.
He appeared in the background of the shot, behind dozens of customers including Western and Asian tourists, all talking and laughing and unaware of what was to follow.
The bomber reached the back of the room and entered the kitchen, which was screened off from the dining room by a chest- high partition, and was engulfed by a blinding flash.
An explosion followed which tore apart the back of the restaurant. Pastika said one person was killed instantly other than the bomber.
The bomber could not be seen very clearly in the footage which was edited by police, but he seemed to be wearing a black T-shirt and carrying what appeared to be a bulging knapsack on his back.
The police later showed pictures of the severed heads of the three men believed behind the three blasts in Kuta and Jimbaran, and said one of the heads was found 25 metres away from the body.
Pastika said there were traces of the explosive TNT on the dismembered corpses of the suspected bombers, but their heads were intact enough to help in identification.
"There are those who planned it, there were those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs," he said, underlining that responsibility went beyond the three. "Those are the ones we must search for."
The country's top counter-terrorism official, Ansyaad Mbai, said the carnage was the work of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) key leaders Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
"The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same as the previous bombings," Mbai said, referring to the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002.
Sanglah Hospital officials said at least 26 people were killed and more than 100 others injured in the incident, but police put the death toll at only 22.
Despite the blasts, some tourists still sunned themselves on Sunday on Bali, while mourners planted wreaths on the golden sands in memory of the victims.