Travel warnings reinstated after website find
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.