Bali bomber: Pictures and video boost investigation

Police were rushing to identify three suicide bombers in blasts that killed 26 people on Bali island, while seeking three accomplices and enlisting a former operative of Southeast Asia’s top terror group to help track down the masterminds.

The bodies of the attackers believed to be responsible for the near-simultaneous bombings on three crowded restaurants were blown away but their heads were intact, and remarkably well-preserved, said Indonesian anti-terror official Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai.

Photographs of the bombers’ decapitated heads, swollen and bruised, appeared in several national papers today.

That – and a chilling video capturing a suspected bomber strolling past diners at one of the cafes moments before it was blown up – could provide a tremendous boost to the investigation.

Mbai said results could come within days, adding that police think at least three other people were involved in the attacks and are probably still be on Bali.

“If the past is any precedent, they have planned safe houses and lying low, letting the first dragnet pass over head,” said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security consultant and author of an upcoming book on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Mbai did not say whether the suspected accomplices included Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, Malaysian fugitives whom police allege may have masterminded the attack – and the 2002 bombings on the same island three years ago that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists.

Mbai also said police believe the bombs, which were packed with ball bearings to inflict maximum damage over a wide area, were detonated by mobile phone. Investigators say all three attackers were fitted with explosive belts.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks at two seafood cafes on Jimbaran beach and at the Raja Cafe in the bustling tourist centre of Kuta, all packed with diners on the busiest night of the week.

But suspicion immediately fell on Jemaah Islamiyah, whose members were convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, and two other deadly terror attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim country in 2003 and 2004, both in the capital Jakarta.

Authorities have enlisted the help of a former Jemaah Islamiyah operative to help track down the masterminds in Saturday’s bombings. Nasir Abbas, who has testified against former colleagues in trials, arrived on Bali two hours after the blasts, working as an informant for police.

“Police are using him to help find which group is behind this operation, former terrorists can help give details,” Mbai said.

Twelve Indonesians, two Australians and one Japanese man were among the 26 people killed on Saturday. Officials were trying to identify the nationalities of the other corpses in the morgue, a hospital statement said.

The 101 wounded included 49 Indonesians, 17 Australians, six Americans, six Koreans, four Japanese, officials said.