July 20 (Bloomberg) -- The suicide bombers who attacked the Jakarta JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels, killing nine people including themselves, are linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, Indonesian police said.
The attackers on July 17 used the same bomb schematic, materials and method as those employed in past strikes blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian group, police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told reporters in Jakarta yesterday. Officers found and defused a bomb in a guest room in the Marriott after bombers detonated two such devices in restaurants at the hotels.
“There’re similarities, the schematic is the same, and that identifies that the perpetrators are from the same network, Soekarna said. “If they are identical then that must become the objective of the direction to investigate” who is behind the attack, he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono kept Southeast Asia’s biggest economy free of attacks for four years by among other things capturing militants and giving tuition aid for the children of reformed terrorists. Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a six-year bombing campaign that left about 280 people dead.
The attacks bear the hallmark of tactics and explosive devices used by Malaysian terrorist Noordin Mohammad Top, said Ansyaad Mbai, who coordinates Indonesian counter-terrorism efforts. Top, a suspected former leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, was probably looking for the right moment to strike, such as the presidential election and a planned trip by the Manchester United Football Club, said Mbai.
‘Strong Message’
“They wanted to send a strong message to show that their capability and spirit remain strong,” Mbai, who isn’t directly involved in the investigation, said July 18 in an interview in Jakarta. “Using the Manchester United event, they wanted to attract international attention.”
The British soccer team scrapped its first trip to Indonesia because of the attacks, which came nine days after the presidential election. Yudhoyono, a 59-year-old former general, was re-elected with 62 percent of the votes, according to the latest tally by the election commission.
President Barack Obama offered U.S. support in the investigation during a telephone conversation with Yudhoyono the day after the attacks, the White House said in a statement.
The Jakarta city government may ban people from bringing in luggage to hotel restaurants, Governor Fauzi Bowo said at a briefing July 18. Marriott, the biggest U.S. hotel chain, is studying the use of X-ray machines, “sniffer” dogs and entry barriers, said Alan Orlob, Marriott’s global head of security.
Hotel Guests
Obama in his telephone call congratulated Yudhoyono on his re-election and said the July 8 poll in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country “reminds the world that Islam, democracy and diversity can co-exist and thrive,” the White House statement said.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, during a visit to Jakarta July 18, also offered to help Indonesia with the investigations.
Among the four foreigners killed in the bombings, three were from Australia and one from New Zealand, officials said. The dead included three people who were yet to be identified and the two bombers.
Among the 50 wounded, 16 were foreigners, including eight Americans and citizens of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea and Britain, officials said.
The attack “more than anything, points to an extremist Islamic group that may be one associated with Top,” said Sidney Jones, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group in Jakarta. “Any of these attacks needs a lot of planning.”
In August 2003, 12 people died when a truck bomb exploded outside the Marriott lobby in Jakarta. Indonesia blamed that attack and the Bali bombing the previous year on Jemaah Islamiyah.
Stratfor, a Texas-based national security consulting firm, called Jemaah Islamiyah the likely suspect for the July 17 attack.
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