Suicide car bomber kills 14 at luxury hotel

TERRORISTS linked to al-Qaida were blamed for a suicide car bomb attack on a luxury hotel in the Indonesian capital, which killed at least 14 people and wounded 150 yesterday.

Shattered glass and pools of blood covered the ground for two blocks around Jakarta's five-star Marriott Hotel, which was popular with visiting western businessmen. A Dutch bank president was among the dead.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent

Islamic militant group with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida.

Several of its leaders face execution in Indonesia if convicted of carrying out last October's devastating Bali nightclub bombings.

"People were screaming, panicking", said Sodik, a witness who was having lunch next door. "I thought it was an earthquake."

The explosion shattered windows as high up as the 20th floor. One Red Cross official said a human head without a body was recovered from the fifth floor of the hotel.

"I thought a plane must have hit the building," said an officer worker from across the street. Indonesia's Vice President Hamzah Haz said the bombing may have been aimed at US interests.

Black smoke billowed from the 33-storey hotel, which was often used for functions held by the US embassy.

Indonesian security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said strict security measures had been put in place at the airport and in other public places.

He called the blast a "diabolical and inhumane terrorist attack". A US spokesman also condemned the attack, but said Washington was confident in Indonesia's ability to fight terrorism.

The explosion came four days after President Megawati Sukarnoputri vowed to destroy the terror networks responsible for a series of bombings across Indonesia the world's biggest Muslim nation.

She later toured the bomb site and a hospital treating the injured. Since the Bali attacks on October 12 intelligence experts had warned more terror attacks were likely in south-east Asia, and in Indonesia particularly.

Jemaah Islamiyah's (JI) alleged leader, Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, is on trial for treason over a series of bombings in 2000.

Yesterday's blast rocked the capital just two days before the first verdict is expected in a series of trials in Bali.

The Indonesian Red Cross put the death toll at 13, and said 149 were wounded.

Hans Winkelmolen, president of the PT Rabobank Duta Indonesia, was among the dead. Local media said eight foreigners were hurt two Americans, two Singaporeans, two Chinese, and one each from Australia and New Zealand.