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JPost.com » News » World News » Article Sep. 10, 2004 9:23 Up to 3 suicide bombers killed in Jakarta attack By ASSOCIATED PRESS JAKARTA, Indonesia Indonesian police suspect that Thursday's attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was a suicide operation and that up to three terrorists may have died in the blast, a senior commander said Friday. "We suspect that it is a suicide bombing," said Lt. Gen. Suyitno Landung, the national police force's chief of detectives. Nine people were killed in the attack, which has been blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian group linked to al-Qaida....

By deciding to join the invasion of Iraq, Howard raised our profile in the eyes of terrorists. There are 13 myths that surround Australia's decision to join the American invasion of Iraq. The first is that Saddam Hussein threatened the United States and, indeed, Australia. The second is that "everyone" believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that he was prepared to use. The third is that Iraq had a "usable chemical and biological weapons capability" and was developing nuclear weapons, as John Howard told Parliament on February 4, 2003. Fourth, that the invading forces would be greeted with...

No doubt some will say the Jakarta bomb is a vicious retort to Howard's Iraq policy. It requires a medieval mindset to conceive of the sort of savagery the world witnessed in Beslan. The targeting of children defies the human spirit and trashes the principle of civilian immunity. It is another brutal reminder of why the phenomenon of megaterror demands a rethink of our assumptions about the nature of the international order. And if anyone in this country was ever tempted to dismiss these concerns as remote to our national interests, yesterday's blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta represents...

The bombing of the Australian embassy was not without warning. The US put out a rare warning last Friday saying it had intelligence that terrorists might attack "identifiably American or other Western facilities or businesses in Indonesia". It advised Americans officials in Indonesia to avoid "identifiably Western hotels". The warning also prompted Australia to change its travel advisories the same day, with the Department of Foreign Affairs warning Australian officials in Jakarta to avoid Western hotels and to "take note of this advice". The ABC reported yesterday that a function that was due to be held in a Jakarta hotel...

The Australian embassy in the busy Kuningan district area in South Jakarta has been rocked by a powerful bomb blast just outside its gates. UPDATE: Casualty figures suggest that at least eight were killed by the blast and more than 100 injured. Some sources say several small explosions followed the main explosion. Australian leadership figures say the bomb was a terrorist attack. Lyndall Sachs, a spokeswoman for the Australian foreign ministry in Canberra, told the Associated Press that no embassy personnel had been hurt but that windows of the building were shattered and that power was down. Other sources said...

THE Jakarta embassy bombing showed Australia must negotiate with terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiah, Brian Deegan, whose son Joshua died in the 2002 Bali bombings, said today. Australia needed to rethink its foreign policies, he said. Mr Deegan, a former magistrate who is running against Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer in the federal election, called on Mr Downer to meet Jemaah Islamiah (JI) to negotiate an end to the terror. JI, a terror group linked to al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for yesterday's car bomb attack outside the Australian embassy that killed nine people and injured at least 180. Mr Downer...

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP PRESS CONFERENCE 4 TREASURY PLACE, MELBOURNE Subjects: Australian Embassy in Jakarta PRIME MINISTER: Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have called this news conference to provide as much information as I can about the bomb blast in Jakarta. At about 1.15pm this afternoon Eastern Standard Time a very large bomb went off near the front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. I have been informed that it left a crater three metres deep and it was four metres from the Embassy gate. The Embassy fence held but the gate was demolished...

TERRORISTS struck at Australia's embassy in Jakarta yesterday, exploding a massive car bomb that killed nine people and wounded 160. No Australians died in the blast, but it is believed two embassy workers were taken to hospital. Those killed were mainly Indonesians, some of them embassy security staff, cut down in the road by the explosion just 4m from the front gates of the compound. Sickening pictures showed a little girl being carried from the scene, her body torn to shreds. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the bombing as an attack on Australia. "It is clearly a terrorist attack," Mr...

THE terrorist attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta was most probably the work of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a terrorism expert said today. Australian National University's director of terrorism studies, Clive Williams, said he agreed with the Federal Government that the South-East Asian Islamic group was the likely culprit. "Yes, I would have to say so (that it looks like JI is to blame) because they certainly have the capabilities to do these sorts of things and they certainly have the intent," he told ABC radio. Mr Williams said experts had predicted a second attack on Australia by JI for...

A BOMB blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta was a terrorist attack on Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. A bomb exploded outside the embassy about 10.15am local time (1.15pm AEST). "It is clearly a terrorist attack, it was outside the Australian embassy, you would have to conclude that it was directed towards Australia," Mr Downer said in Adelaide. Jakarta's police chief said it was unclear if a suicide bomber was involved in the attack. Major General Firman Gani said at least five people were killed in the attack, with 106 others injured. "We cannot determine whether this...

JAKARTA, INDONESIA - A powerful explosion rocked central Jakarta near the Australian embassy on Thursday, killing at least three people and wounding many more. Witnesses said a high fence surrounding the diplomatic compound was damaged, along with several cars. Windows were shattered in nearby buildings. A doctor at a nearby hospital said "many injured" had been admitted as a result of the blast. A spokeswoman for the Australian foreign ministry in Canberra, Lyndall Sachs, said no one in the embassy was hurt. She said windows in the building were broken and electricity was knocked out. The mission was evacuated Police...

Blast Rocks Indonesian Capital Thursday, September 09, 2004 JAKARTA, Indonesia — A powerful explosion near the Australian embassy in Jakarta (search) on Thursday killed at least three people and wounded many more, witnesses and officials said. The source of the 10:15 a.m. blast outside the embassy in a business district in southern Jakarta was not immediately known.

THE Australian embassy in Jakarta was damaged by a powerful explosion that blew up vehicles in front of the complex. At least three people were killed However no Australian embassy staff had been confirmed injured, the federal government said. Four cars and the embassy's high metal fence were damaged, witnesses reported. The windows on several surrounding buildings were smashed. ElShinta radio station quoted a witness saying a police truck and a taxi in front of the Australian embassy had been blown apart and the high steel fence surrounding the building was damaged. A reporter on the scene said there was...

3 dead in Australian embassy blast A POWERFUL explosion outside Australia's embassy in central Jakarta left at least three people dead and many wounded today, officials and witnesses said. It also caused extensive damage to nearby buildings. The immediate cause of the explosion, which punched out windows in a nearby office building and damaged the embassy's outer perimeter, was not known. An AFP reporter at the scene saw two lifeless bodies being taken away by police and another person being wheeled out on a stretcher attached to an intravenous drip. The blast about 10:30 am (1330 AEST) prompted the immediate...

Blast rocks Jakarta business district JAKARTA, Indonesia: A powerful explosion near the Australian embassy rocked a major business district in southern Jakarta Thursday. At least four people were wounded. The source of the 10.15 a.m. (0415 GMT) blast was not immediately known. Four cars and the high metal fence surrounding the Australian embassy were damaged. The windows of surrounding buildings were smashed. An Associated Press reporter on the scene said at least four people were wounded. A severed human leg was lying on Rasuna Said street. Police were not immediately available for comment. In recent weeks several Western embassies, including...

Witnesses report explosion in major business district in central Jakarta, Indonesia; cause of blast unknown (Reuters)