INDONESIAN police say the manhunt for the perpetrators of the Sept 9 blast outside the Australian embassy would soon bear fruit with the arrest of alleged accomplices of Malaysian bomb experts Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top. National Police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said four suspects were under arrest, including three detained before the blast. He said nine other people were being questioned and some of them could emerge as suspects. 'With the arrest of these people our investigation has become more focused,' Gen Bachtiar told a press conference yesterday. The arrests were made in two locations in the western part of Java and North Jakarta. The suspects were alleged to have helped prepare the explosives used in the bomb attack and to have harboured the Malaysian fugitives. 'They were not directly involved in the bombing. For example, they admitted they knew the packages they were moving from one place to another were explosives. They also confessed they were with Azahari right before the explosion,' Gen Bachtiar said.
| Must have used the lineman's pliers. |
One of the four suspects under arrest has been identified as A.A.H. He was given the task of transporting explosive materials by Azahari. Azahari and Noordin are believed to have masterminded the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, the JW Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta that claimed 12 lives and the latest blast that left at least 10 people dead, including one of the perpetrators. Police yesterday also issued a sketch of the last buyer of a truck used in the embassy bombing. Gen Bachtiar said the man's facial features were similar to those of a suspect on a police wanted list. A police source said that after multiple arrests, they were concentrating their manhunt on West Java, including Bandung and Cirebon.
Police last week issued sketches of the 10 most-wanted mutts suspects linked to the embassy bombing. The sketches included those of Azahari and Noordin. Two other suspects, Hasan and Jabir alias Nanang, were also named last week. They are believed to have been recruited by Noordin as suicide bombers. The police sketches included those of two other Bali bombing suspects, Dulmatin and Umar alias Patek, the alleged commander of Jemaah Islamiah's armed wing, Zulkarnaen, and five other men named as Rois, Abu Dujana, Hasan, Ibrahim Nurdin and Zuhroni alias Oni. |