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Jakarta
18 July 2009
Investigations continued Saturday into the Friday bombings at two
hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia that left nine people dead and at least 50
injured. Little information
about the bombings is being released to the public.
On Saturday,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the sites where
two bombs exploded at the Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels.
On Friday
the president said the bombings were acts of terrorism but he made no
statement during the visits.
The governor of Jakarta Fauzi Bowo
visited victims injured in the blasts. At one hospital he visited, he
said of the 17 that were admitted yesterday, only seven remain in
intensive care. The governor also said one of the victims was a
Marriott Hotel security guard who was also injured in the 2003 Marriott
Hotel bombing.
He says the guard was severely burned last time
and has a healed scar on his hand. This time, he says, the burns are
not as severe but the man is in shock.
Investigations into the
cause of the bombings are underway. The police have so far made no
public statements beyond confirming that suicide bombers were
responsible for the attacks, and that the perpetrators were posing as
guests at the Marriott Hotel. Health officials have confirmed that
Americans, Australians, Canadians and a New Zealander were among the
victims of the bombings.
No official suspects have been named,
but analysts say it is likely be the work of Jemaah Islamiyah or a
breakaway faction of the group. The al-Qaida-linked network is blamed
for past attacks in Indonesia, including the 2003 bombing at the
Marriott in which 12 people died.
The Governor of Jakarta says
from looking at the Marriott Hotel surveillance tape recorded just
before the blast, they have determined that the perpetrators planted
the bombs in their luggage.
He says there is an indication that
the source of one of the explosions was inside heavy luggage being
carried into the hotel restaurant.
Friday's blasts raised
questions about security gaps at high-end hotels. Hotels have become
popular targets for militants in recent years, most notably in Mumbai,
India, where attacks in November of 2008 killed more than 160 people.
The
governor says Indonesian authorities are considering requiring that
guests check all luggage before being allowed into hotel restaurants.
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