Bali bombers from a "new generation" -Indonesia police
KUTA BEACH, Indonesia, Friday (Reuters)
The three young suicide bombers who killed 19 other people in Bali
represent a new generation of violent militants in Indonesia, Bali
police chief Made Mangku Pastika said on Friday.
Police say explosives on the bodies of the three ripped through
restaurants on the tourist island last Saturday, killing 22, including
the three men, and wounding 146.
Police believe the bombers had help and have launched a huge manhunt
for others involved, aided by some foreign law enforcement officers and
the Indonesian military.
Attention has centred on Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the al Qaeda-linked
Islamic militant network blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, and two
of its leaders, Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
But experts say much of the old Jemaah Islamiah structure has been
destroyed, and the two Malaysians may have formed fresh organisations
and recruited new personnel. Asked about that and reports that the
bombers might have been only recently trained, Pastika told reporters:
"They come from a new group. A new generation means that (they) are
not known by the old group."
Late on Thursday a Western diplomat in Jakarta had also suggested the
bombers did not necessarily come from JI, saying: "there (are) also of
course a lot of other people out there trained in the camps."
But the diplomat, who declined to be identified, said the fact that
relatively small bombs had been used in the Bali attacks rather than the
car bombs favoured in past Indonesian blasts did not necessarily mean
the Bali conspirators had different roots.
"Our concern has always been that once you really got enough pressure
on these guys to make it harder for them to assemble the car bombs and
do the big splashes like they like to do, that they would then go to the
tried and proven method of backpacks and things like that," he told
reporters.
Police have questioned at least 94 people so far over last weekend's
blasts, and received many tip-offs, but no one has been arrested or
charged.
The military has said it will contribute to the investigation, after
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked for its help, but some analysts
are concerned over whether it will try to assume police functions. |