- (AFP) -- An international police task force pressed on
with its hunt for the Bali bombers today as reports emerged of how the
attack was carefully planned to maximise the death toll.
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- A source close to the inquiry said the bombers used a
combination of powerful C4 plastic explosive and gas cylinders in an attempt
to kill as many people as possible on the Indonesian resort island.
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- Just before the main blast the attackers detonated a
small bomb to bring people out into the street, the source told AFP.
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- Eight bombers in two vans staged the attack which killed
more than 180 people from over two dozen countries, a newspaper reported
today.
-
- Citing police and intelligence sources, local daily Koran
Tempo said the bombers may have used remote control devices to blow up
two bars filled mostly with foreigners in Bali's busy Kuta tourist district.
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- Police have said that the explosion, in which al-Qaeda's
involvement is suspected, was caused by a car bomb and that C4 was used.
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- Two Indonesians have been detained in Bali in connection
with the attack, which is being investigated by local police backed by
officers from Australia, Britain, Germany, Japan and the US Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
-
- One of the detained was said to have been in the Kuta
area when the blast occurred.
-
- Tempo cited information obtained from an unnamed official
of the National Intelligence Agency that seven Indonesians under the leadership
of someone from the Middle East carried out the bombing.
-
- "They are all aready out of Bali," the official
said.
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- Bali Police Chief Brigadier General Budi Setiawan, asked
about the newspaper report, appeared to confirm it.
-
- "That is from information gathered from the joint
intelligence team," he said, referring to a team linking local and
national police, the military and intelligence agencies.
-
- The information "needs to be developed," he
said, declining further comment.
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- The Washington Post said today that Indonesian police
have arrested a former air force officer who confessed to building the
bomb.
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- The report quoting Indonesian security sources said the
suspect regretted the huge loss of life but had yet to reveal who ordered
him to build the bomb.
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- The report, carried on the Web site of the International
Herald Tribune, said the suspect had learned to handle explosives while
serving in the Indonesian air force, which later dismissed him for misconduct.
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- The national police spokesman and intelligence officials
could not be reached for comment on the report.
-
- Setiawan said "that (Post report) still needs to
be further developed and investigated" but declined futher comment.
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- According to Tempo, the two vans used in the attack had
first stopped near the popular Sari Club, causing a traffic jam in the
narrow main street of Kuta while clearing a space in front of them.
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- One van was left behind and the occupants switched to
the other vehicle which sped off before the bomb blew up shortly thereafter,
it said.
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- "There are two possibilities, that the bomb was
activated by a timer or the perpetrators just pushed a remote control button
so that they can control the blast from a safe distance and give them enough
time to flee," a police source was quoted as saying.
-
- The blast ripped through the packed Sari Club and a bar
across the road and caused a fire that blazed for hours and gutted the
area.
-
- National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar said some
witnesses spoke of a man who left a white plastic bag at the scene and
fled when he was hailed shortly before the blast.
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- The source close to the investigation described the Bali
attack as "organised very professionally."
-
- He noted that C4 and the same technique was also used
in a bombing in August 2000 in Jakarta which badly injured the Philippine
ambassador.
-
- It was also used in the attack in Yemen on the USS Cole
two years to the day before the Bali blast. Al-Qaeda was blamed for the
warship blast.
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- Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has described
the attack as "very carefully planned" and said Indonesian investigators
believed al-Qaeda, possibly working with a local group such as Jemaah Islamiyah,
was responsible.
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- Australians and Indonesians are believed to account for
the bulk of those killed and injured in Saturday's attack.
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-
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- Comment
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- Arnold Goldman
10-16-2
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- The circulating story about the explosion/s being a 'mini-nuke'
are more ridiculous net mania. The US CIA has C4, so does the US military.
And so, probably, does the Indonesian military.
-
- This 'mini-nuke' story is B.S. misdirection. It is unproven,
unfounded, unwise disinformation. C4 and many commonly-available chemicals
will create exactly the kind of explosion seen. Ask ANYONE with military
ordnance experience. The use of compressed volatile gas tanks is no surprise.
-
- Do people really believe 'they' could keep RADIATION
a secret?? That the government of Bali wouldn't tell its citizens and
rescue workers about potential life-threatening exposure to radioactive
debris? Or, that anyone with a simple gieger counter wouldn't find radiation
all over the site - not to mention on the victims and their clothing? This
is really getting to be nutter time, folks.
-
- No one is thinking clearly and everyone is leaping to
absurd conclusions because one writer releases a wildly unnecessary speculative
story. There is NO NEED for a 'mini-nuke' explanation of this blast.
Or, was this story intentionally released to muddy the waters?
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