Australian embassy bomb kills nine

A POWERFUL car bomb exploded outside the gates of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta yesterday, killing nine people and wounding nearly 100 in an attack police blamed on al-Qaida-linked terrorists.

The blast flattened the embassy’s gate, mangled cars on the busy commercial street and shattered the windows of nearby high-rise buildings. Dazed survivors desperately tried to locate colleagues and relatives.

A senior Indonesian police officer who asked not to be identified said nine people died in the blast, including three policemen guarding the building.

A doctor at a nearby hospital said 98 people were admitted with injuries, none of them foreigners.

The bombing could have been timed with several upcoming events: the anniversary on Saturday of the September 11 attacks in the US, Indonesian presidential elections on September 20 and Australian elections next month.

Australia’s role as a US ally in the war in Iraq has been a key issue in the election campaign, with opposition leader Mark Latham promising to bring troops back home if elected.

“This is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism,” Australian prime minister John Howard said.

Police blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network that is linked to al-Qaida. The group has been accused of several bombings, including the bombing of the Marriott hotel in the same neighbourhood last year in which 12 people died.

A 2002 terrorist attack on the resort island of Bali killed more 200 people, including 88 Australians.

“Initial investigations show this was a car bomb,” police chief General Dai Bachtiar said.

“The modus operandi is very similar to other attacks, including the Bali bombings and the Marriott blast,” Gen Bachtiar said. “We can conclude (the perpetrators) are the same group.”

About a dozen Australians were slightly wounded, mostly by flying glass.

Passers-by witnessed grisly scenes as security officers covered the bodies of victims ripped apart by the blast with newspapers. A severed human leg lay on the intersection between the two lanes of the street, its trousers torn of the by force of the explosion.

Gen Bachtiar, the police chief, said the bombing may have been the work of Azahari Husin, a British-trained Malaysian engineer who has eluded capture for nearly three years. Husin, one of Asia’s most-wanted men and a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, has been linked to numerous bombings, including the Bali blasts.

Several Western embassies, including those of the US and Australia, recently warned of possible attacks by Muslim militants.