Hotel suicide bombers posed as guests

Suicide bombers posing as guests blew up two luxury Indonesian hotels today killing eight and injuring more than 50.

The near-simultaneous bombings ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. At least 18 foreigners were among the dead and wounded.

The blasts at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, located side-by-side in an upmarket business district, blew out windows and scattered debris and glass across the street, reducing the facades of both to twisted metal.

Two Australians and a New Zealander were believed to have been killed, but there was confusion about the exact number of victims.

An Australian think tank, the Strategic Policy Institute, yesterday predicted the South-east Asian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, linked to al-Qaida, might launch new attacks.

It said tensions in the group’s leadership and the release of former members from prison “raise the possibility that splinter factions might now seek to re-energise the movement through violent attacks.”

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a “terrorist group”.

He also suggested a possible link to the national election last week that is expected to hand him another five-year term as president.

Suspicion will fall on Jemaah Islamiyah or its allies. The network is blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, including a 2003 bombing at the Marriott when 12 people died.

Manchester United cancelled a planned visit to Indonesia. The team had been scheduled to stay at the Ritz tomorrow and Sunday nights for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars.

Jakarta police said two suicide bombers carried out the attacks at the hotels. The suspects of the Marriott bombing stayed on the 18th floor, where un-detonated explosives were found today.

The Marriott was hit first, followed by the blast at the Ritz two minutes later.

Security Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto told reporters at the scene the hotel blasts happened two minutes apart at 7.45 and 7.47am. (1.45am Irish time).

Police said 17 other foreigners were among the wounded, including nationals from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, the United States and Britain.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but terrorism analyst Rohan Gunaratna said Jemaah Islamiyah was the most likely.

“The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon Western targets is Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack,” he said.

There has been a massive crackdown in recent years by anti-terrorist officials in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million, but Mr Gunaratna said the group was “still a very capable terrorist organisation.”

Police have detained most of the key figures in the group and rounded up hundreds of other sympathisers and lesser figures.

But Mr Gunaratna said radical ideologues sympathetic to the group were still able to preach extremism in Indonesia, helping provide an infrastructure that could support terrorism.

In October 2002 two Bali nightclubs were attacked killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. Jemaah Islamiyah was accused of responsibility.