Travel warnings reinstated after website find
Agencies, Jakarta
Western states have issued fresh travel warnings for their citizens over possible terrorist attacks in Indonesia after a website was discovered offering tactics and locations for killing foreigners in Jakarta.
The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom have advised their citizens to put off any unnecessary travel to Indonesia, including the tourist destination of Bali, in the wake of the disclosure of a website called Anshar El Muslimin.
The website, which the police have described as a "work of terror", shows in text and diagrams how to carry out assassinations by shooting or throwing grenades at targets at various locations, including malls, hotels, embassies and main thoroughfares in Jakarta.
"We continue to receive reports suggesting that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia," Australia said on the website www.smartraveller.gov.au.
Australia warned on Saturday that attacks could be staged against Western interests before the end of the year.
In a message to Americans, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said the discovered website indicated that militants were changing their tactics.
"In addition to past information which indicated that terrorists would target specific businesses or buildings, the new information shows that terrorists are likely now planning to attack westerners riding in cars or walking on streets, sidewalks or pedestrian overpasses in Jakarta," it said.
The U.S. State Department said in its latest warning that terrorist attacks could occur at any time and could be directed against any locations, including those frequented by foreigners, locations that were identifiably American or other western facilities or businesses in Indonesia.
Great Britain also issued a similar warning.
Indonesian Police said the website was set up by one of three men named as suspects this week over the Oct. 1 restaurant bombings on Bali that killed 20 people.
The suspects are believed to have collaborated with Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, believed to be the masterminds of dozens of bombings across the country over the past several years.
Information gathered in the Nov. 9 raid in which Azahari and another man were killed, indicated that affiliated groups of terrorists were in the advanced stages of planning attacks against westerners in Indonesia.
In the raid, police discovered at least 35 bombs ready for use, in addition to a videotaped threat from a masked individual thought to be Noordin, who said attacks would be launched against Americans, Australians, British and Italians.
Terrorist bombings in 2002 at nightclubs in Bali killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians. Four Australians were among the 20 people killed in the Bali bombings on Oct. 1. A car bomb killed 11 people outside the Australian Embassy in the capital in September 2004.