Posted on 11/25/2002 3:26:12 PM PST by knighthawk
'I WANT to say sorry to you, but all I want to do is commit myself to jihad.' Iqbal, probably southeast Asia's first suicide bomber, wrote this to his parents in the days before he walked into Paddy's bar in Bali and detonated a 1kg shrapnel bomb, killing himself and a crowd of holidaymakers.
Police sources say the letter spoke of martyrdom and was a farewell to his parents, who live in the West Javanese town of Malimping, Serang. Written in the West Javanese Sunda language and found in the home of an accomplice named Yudi, the letter backs a claim from bomb mastermind Imam Samudra that the Paddy's bomb was the work of a martyr.
As he was hustled into police headquarters in Jakarta at dawn yesterday, Samudra muttered to a reporter: "This is a sacred struggle, not a heinous one. Allah is great."
Police spokesman Edward Aritonang said Samudra had admitted to knowing detained Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged leader of the terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiah.
"Imam Samudra claims he knows Abu Bakar Bashir, but right now there is no relation with the Bali bomb (and Bashir)," he told reporters.
Police are trying to establish links between the bombers and the suspected JI leadership. Time magazine reported yesterday that a senior al-Qa'ida operative from Yemen is being sought as one of the "top tier" suspects in the bombings.
Yet no matter how much new evidence is unearthed, police doubt they will ever be able to conclusively prove the Paddy's bar explosion was the work of a suicide bomber. The remains of the alleged bomber, Iqbal, have been found among the 300-plus body parts still stored in Denpasar's Sanglah Hospital and forensic tests have established he was very close to the centre of the explosion.
Tests have centred on a scorched hand, found among the body parts, which had shreds of a blue cloth thought to have been used to cover the bomb. Forensic experts have taken DNA samples from the hand and matched them to samples taken from Iqbal's parents.
Ben McDevitt, of the Australian Federal Police, said officers had suspected this scenario since the early days of the investigation but had not said anything because it was mere speculation. Iqbal is believed to have been carrying between 500g and 1kg of TNT, which was surrounded by metal shrapnel.
"What we're talking about now is not only someone wishing to inflict enormous casualties on innocent people, but the desire to do so is so strong that they are prepared to sacrifice their own life in achieving that aim," Mr McDevitt said.
However, Samudra's confession is in conflict with three witness accounts that suggest the bomb was on the floor of the busy nightclub when it exploded.
One prime witness, an Indonesian named Chusnul Chotimah, who is recovering in an Australian hospital, has told officers that the bomber carried the device into the bar in a white bag that was either left on the floor or on a stool near the DJ's booth. Both other witnesses have partially corroborated Ms Chotimah's story, but crucially none have described seeing the flashpoint of the bomb coming from the bag.
Never before has there been a suicide attack in southeast Asia. Terrorists in the region have instead preferred to explode bombs through remote detonation.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that another senior member of the bombing operation, a man named Agus, was to have played a pivotal role in the attack.
But only days before the blast, Samudra and his deputies, Idris and Dulmatin, decided to proceed without Agus, who learned bomb-making skills in Afghanistan. Police have started a massive hunt for Agus and believe they are close to making an arrest.
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