Posted on 08/08/2003 11:45:51 PM PDT by HAL9000
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- The perpetrators of this week's deadly car bombing at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Indonesia's defense minister said, adding that there are many more terrorists still in the country.Matori Abdul Djalil said that the bombers were linked to a group of people arrested last month in the eastern town of Semarang and alleged to be members of the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.
Matori said the terror group was behind both the Marriott blast, which killed 10 people and injured 150, and the Oct. 12 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.
"Each one of them has special abilities received from training in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Matori Abdul Djalil said late Friday.
Matori made his comments to reporters in the eastern city of Makassar. A tape of the comments reached The Associated Press on Saturday.
"There are many more Jemaah Islamiyah members on the loose in Indonesia ... Because of this I am sure that JI is behind all of this," he said.
Last month, police seized four bags of TNT, 25 sacks of potassium chlorate and over 1,000 detonators from Jemaah Islamiyah members in Semarang, Central Java, which they said had the potential to cause even more carnage than the Bali explosions. This cell also had a list of potential targets in Jakarta.
Matori said that nine suspects arrested during the raid had helped plan the Marriott bombing.
Meanwhile, the United States warned that extremists may be planning more terror attacks against American interests in Indonesia.
"The potential remains throughout Indonesia for violence and terrorist actions against U.S. citizens and interests," the U.S. State Department said on its Web site Saturday.
"Extremist elements may be planning additional attacks targeting U.S. interests in Indonesia, particularly U.S. government officials and facilities."
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