From AP Breaking: Bombing at Australian Embassy Kills Four, Wounds 50
By Slobodan Lekic Associated Press Writer
Published: Sep 9, 2004
ap.tbo.com
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful bomb exploded near the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday, killing at least four people and wounding 100, witnesses and police said.
No one inside the heavily fortified embassy was seriously hurt in the blast, said Lyndall Sachs, a spokeswoman for the Australian foreign ministry in Canberra. Four cars, including a police vehicle, were damaged, and a section of the embassy's high metal perimeter fence was flattened. The windows on several high-rise buildings nearby were smashed.
Local security officials said an Indonesian security guard manning a post outside the gate was among the three people who died in the explosion, which occurred at 10:15 a.m.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said up to six people may have died. But a doctor at a nearby hospital couldn't confirm that, saying the toll stood at four with 98 people admitted for treatment.
It was unclear who was responsible for the attack, but Indonesia has been hit in recent years by a series of deadly bombings of Western targets by militants belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian network linked to al-Qaida.
Though the toll was far lower, it also bore echoes of the train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and influenced elections soon after. The Jakarta blast occurred in the middle of an Australian election campaign in which Canberra's role as a U.S. ally in the war in Iraq has been a key issue. Voting is set for next month.
It also came two days before the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The embassy is located on Rasuna Said street, a main thoroughfare housing a number of foreign embassies and businesses. An AP photographer on the scene saw at least three dismembered bodies on the wide six-lane street.
"The ground shook so hard I fell down. A huge column of white smoke rose up," said Joko Triyanto, a security guard, his arms bleeding from shrapnel wounds sustained in the explosion.
Officials at a nearby hospital said that more than 50 people were wounded.
In recent weeks several Western embassies, including those of the United States and Australia, have warned their citizens about possible attacks by Muslim militants.
Last year, 12 people died in a suicide attack on the JW Marriott hotel in the same district. In 2002, more than two hundred people - including 88 Australians - died in an attack on two nightclubs on the tourist island of Bali.
Both attacks were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah. More than 150 people have been arrested over those attacks. More than 50 people have been sentenced so far - including three who received the death sentence.
Prime Minister John Howard claims that Australia's role in last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has not raised the country's profile as a potential terror target. But the opposition Labor Party, which is running neck and neck with the government in pre-election polls, disputes that.
AP-ES-09-09-04 0207EDT |
