Suicide hotel blasts kill nine in Indonesia

SUICIDE bombers posing as guests attacked American luxury hotels in Indonesia’s capital and set off a pair of bombs yesterday that killed at least nine people and wounded more than 50, authorities said.

The bombings, which came two minutes apart, ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The blasts at the high-rise JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, located side-by-side in an upscale business district in Jakarta, blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street, kicking up a thick plume of smoke.

The attackers evaded hotel security, smuggling explosives into the Marriott and assembling the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an undetonated device was found after the explosions. The bombers had stayed at the hotel for two days and set off the blasts in restaurants at both hotels.

“They had been using the room as their ‘command post’ since July 15, and today they were supposed to check out,” police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said.

Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging nearby, said he walked into the Marriott before emergency services arrived and “there were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach”, he said. “It was terrible.”

The attack occurred as the Marriott was hosting a regular meeting of top foreign executives at major companies in Indonesia organised by the consultancy firm CastleAsia, said the group, which is headed by an American. An Australian think tank, the Strategic Policy Institute, had warned the Southeast Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah might launch new attacks just a day before yesterday’s deadly strike.

Authorities did not immediately name a suspect, but suspicion fell on the Jemaah Islamiyah or its allies.

The al-Qaida-linked network is blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, including a 2003 bombing at the Marriott in which 12 people died.

Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a “terrorist group” and vowed to arrest the perpetrators.

The Manchester United football team cancelled a visit to Indonesia in the wake of the attacks.

The team had been scheduled to stay at the Ritz-Carlton today and tomorrow.

Security is tight at five-star hotels in Indonesia. Guests typically walk through metal detectors and vehicles are inspected, but many visitors say searches are often cursory.