Australia braced for more attacks

Australia warned today that terrorists could be planning another attack on its citizens in Indonesia, two days after a bomb killed nine people outside Canberra’s embassy in Jakarta.

Prime Minister John Howard said he had ordered ”bomb-proofing” at missions that don’t have it “because of the obvious success of the bombproofing at the windows of the Australian Embassy, and the evident role that bombproofing played in saving the lives of those employed at the embassy”.

All those killed in the bombing were Indonesians who were either guarding the embassy, queuing to get in or passing by.

Howard said the Australian Embassy in Jakarta would not be closed.

“To me, that would be to surrender,” he said.

He was speaking after the government’s National Security Committee was briefed by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who returned today from Jakarta after touring the blast site and meeting top Indonesian officials including President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Earlier today, the government updated its warning for Australians travelling to Indonesia or living there.

“The bomb attack outside the Australian Embassy on September 9 underscores the ongoing terrorist threat to Australians in Indonesia,” said the warning, posted on a government website. “The possibility of another attack against Australians cannot be ruled out.”

It advised Australians to put off all but essential travel to Indonesia, and urged its citizens there who fear for their safety to consider leaving.

“We continue to receive reports that terrorists in the region are planning attacks against a range of targets, including places frequented by foreigners,” the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in the warning.

National airline Qantas, expecting an exodus of Australians, began using larger jets for flights out of Indonesia after the bombing.

Opposition Labour Party foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd, who accompanied Downer to Jakarta, said extra security at the embassy – including bomb-resistant windows and a reinforced fence and gate – had likely slashed the death toll.

Labour leader Mark Latham said today that if he wins the elections on October 9, his government would work with Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to clamp down on Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked Southeast Asian terror group.

JI claimed it carried out the embassy bombing because Indonesian authorities did not comply with its alleged demand that they release Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical Muslim cleric accused of being the group’s leader.

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are “trying to muster the maritime security arrangements that minimise JI’s activities in the region”, Latham said.