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| Southeast Asia |
| Bomb Explodes in Indonesian Town |
| 2004-07-18 |
| Indonesian police were on alert after a small bomb exploded outside a sports stadium in a central province and a soldier's wife was stabbed to death. The bomb exploded late Saturday in the town of Poso. No one was injured in the blast, which police said came from a rudimentary low-explosive device. Earlier the same evening, unidentified assailants stabbed to death the wife of a local soldier in the town. Police declined to speculate on possible motives for the attacks, or on whether they were linked. At least 1,000 have been killed in sporadic violence between Muslims and Christians since 2001 in the region. Both of the latest incidents heightened tensions in the town, which was a major battleground in fighting between Christians and Muslims three years ago. Large-scale clashes between the two sides have now subsided, but occasional shootings and bomb blasts still take place in the region, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of the capital, Jakarta. A spate of deadly attacks on Christians late last year was blamed by intelligence officials on Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida linked terror group accused in the 2002 Bali bombings. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has roughly equal Muslim and Christian populations. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |