- Writer: AFP
- Published: 13/08/2009 at 05:00 PM
Indonesian police said Thursday they had unearthed a new cache of bomb-making chemicals as part of investigations into the July 17 suicide attacks against luxury hotels in Jakarta.
An armed Indonesian policeman stands posted outside the re-opened Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta, July 2009. Indonesian police said they had unearthed a new cache of bomb-making chemicals as part of investigations into the July 17 suicide attacks against luxury hotels in Jakarta.
Police spokesman Sulistyo Ishak said the chemicals were found Wednesday in a rented warehouse in Bogor, West Java, and could be linked to the terror network of Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammed Top.
"The materials are being investigated by Detachment 88 counter-terrorism police to find out whether they're similar to those used by Noordin Top's network," he told AFP.
"We can't tell you now what they were going to use this for, such as where and which target."
Police launched a massive raid on a suspected Noordin hideout on Friday but failed to locate the fugitive Malaysian, killing instead one of his alleged accomplices in the hotel attacks after a 17-hour siege.
The dead man was identified by police Wednesday as Ibrohim, who worked at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels as a florist and was said to have played a crucial role in the planning and execution of the July 17 bombings.
Meanwhile scores of people including radical Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiyah militant movement, attended the funerals of two would-be suicide bombers killed by police on Saturday.
The two alleged Noordin followers were shot dead by police in a raid on a house in Bekasi, between Jakarta and Bogor, where a large amount of explosive materials and a truck rigged as a bomb were also found.
Police said the truck-bomb was going to be used against the nearby residence of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, outside Bogor.
Mourners carried banners praising the men as "martyrs" and encouraging jihad or "holy war" in defence of Islam, as they were buried in their hometown of Solo, one of the hotbeds of Islamist radicalism in the mainly Muslim country.
Police said the identity of the man who had rented the warehouse in Bogor was unknown, but local residents who tipped off police said he bore a resemblance to one of Noordin's accomplices.
"Some said he looked like one of the group members," Ishak said.
The suicide blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels killed seven people, mainly foreigners, and have been blamed on the Noordin network.
The alleged terror financier and recruiter leads an offshoot of Jemaah Islamiyah which carried out the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people, mainly Western tourists.
Noordin, 41, is accused of masterminding a series of attacks against Western targets in Indonesia since 2003 which have killed around 50 people and wounded hundreds.
Jemaah Islamiyah and related militant groups are seeking to unite much of Southeast Asia under an Islamic caliphate, and believe they must kill Westerners to defend Muslims from oppression.
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