Officials say Indonesia
may be in for more terror attacks in the near future, after Tuesday's
hotel bombing in Jakarta that killed at least 10 people and injured
150 others.
Indonesia's chief of police, Dai Bachtiar, said late Wednesday
that security forces had some warning of Tuesday's attack and
the possibility of others, because of evidence they found during
a police raid last month. Australia's Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer says intelligence shows more such attacks could
happen within days.
Earlier Wednesday a Singapore newspaper said Jemaah Islamiyah,
a terror group linked to al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility
for the deadly blast.
An anonymous caller told the paper the attack was a "bloody
warning" to the Indonesian government.
Jakarta security was tightened last month after police arrested
nine suspected Jemaah Islamiyah members and recovered a list
of targets and a huge cache of weapons and explosives on Java
Island. But the added security was not enough to prevent Tuesday's
bombing of the American-run J.W. Marriott hotel in the Indonesian
capital.
Police have released a sketch of a possible suspect, the owner
of the van that exploded near the hotel lobby. Police say the
blast was triggered by a mobile phone. Jemaah Islamiyah
is also thought to have been behind last October's deadly nightclub
bombings on the Indonesian Island of Bali that killed 202 people,
mostly foreign tourists.
Authorities say the manner of the bombing and the explosives
used in the Marriott bombing are similar to those found in the
investigation of the Bali bombings.
Meanwhile, an alleged Jemaah Islamiyah member on trial for
the Bali attack said he welcomes Tuesday's Jakarta bombing, especially
if it was carried out by Muslims.
Imam Samudra, the alleged mastermind of last October's attack,
is on trial in Bali and faces a possible death penalty if convicted.
