Police seized hotel bomb plot documents

INDONESIAN police seized documents last month showing terrorists were planning an attack in the area around Jakarta’s Marriott Hotel, where 10 people died yesterday in a suicide car bombing.

Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind of last year’s Bali nightclub bombings said he was happy about the hotel attack, and that he hoped Muslims had carried it out. “Thank God, I am thankful”, Imam Samudra shouted in court yesterday at the trial of another key suspect in the Bali bombings.

Another alleged Bali bomber, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, also reacted joyously, yelling out “Bomb” when he was asked about the explosion. Australia warned its citizens yesterday of the risk of more terror attacks in Indonesia, citing intelligence picked up in the hours after yesterday’s attack.

Detectives in Jakarta said they planned to release a sketch of one of two men believed to have bought the mini-van used in the blast.

Ten people were killed and about 150 people wounded when a vehicle packed with explosives blew up outside the lobby of the five star hotel in the centre of the Indonesian capital. The Indonesian Red Cross had initially reported 14 people died.

Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional Islamic militant group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, claimed responsibility for the hotel bombing in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper.

“This is a message for our enemies: If they execute any of our Muslim brothers, we will continue this campaign of terror in Indonesia and the region,” the paper quoted an unnamed Jemaah Islamiyah member as saying.