Suicide bombers blamed for carnage on Bali
(Telegraph)
Updated: 2005-10-03 10:22

Suicide bombers were blamed by police last night for three co-ordinated attacks on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali that killed 26 people.

Video footage of the Kuta attack

Television pictures of the three bombers' heads, recovered with some lower limbs, showed one of them apparently smiling slightly at the moment his device detonated.

"All that is left is their head and feet," said Maj Gen Ansyaad Mbai, the country's leading anti-terrorism officer. "We can therefore conclude that the explosives were around their waists."

He said the attacks appeared to be the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qa'eda, which killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002. "The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same," the general said.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation but Bali is mainly Hindu. That, coupled with its popularity with western visitors, makes it a favoured target.

Azahari bin Husin, a bombmaker, and Noordin Mohammad Top, both Malaysian refugees, are believed to be behind much of Jemaah Islamiyah's carnage. But they were not among the three bombers who attacked a restaurant in Kuta, Bali's biggest resort, and two seafront cafes in nearby Jimbaran.

Video footage of the Kuta attack showed a man in a black T-shirt and jeans with something on his back strolling into a restaurant full of diners, then exploding.

Wayan Jipang, 33, a surfing guide, said there was panic when the bombs went off in Jimbaran. "Everyone was trying to run away," he said. "I saw limbs and heads on the beach. It was chaos."

At least three other people were believed to have been involved in the attacks, said Maj Gen I Made Mangku Pastika, Bali's police chief.

"There are those who planned it, those making the arrangements, those preparing the bombs. Those are the ones we must search for."

At least 12 Indonesians, four Australians and one Japanese were among the dead. Some bodies in the mortuary at Sanglah hospital in Denpasar, at least two of them Caucasian, have yet to be identified. The figure of 26 dead includes the bombers. A total of 122 people were injured.

Charles Humfrey, Britain's ambassador, said that one gravely wounded Briton had been flown to Singapore and another, slightly hurt, had been treated and released.

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