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Wed 8 Sep, 2004 11:10 pm
Just happened about an hour ago.
Quote:Huge blast near Australian embassy: 5 dead
September 9, 2004 - 3:03PM
A huge bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta today - there are fears of many casualties.
There are initial reports that no Australians were killed or injured.
Police have confirmed it was a bomb blast, and say bomb squad officers are at the scene.
There are now reports of at least five people dead and more than 50 wounded.
The explosion in Rasuna Said Street was heard five kilometres away and thought to be on a scale with the blast that killed 12 at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.
Metro TV in Jakarta reported that the plume from the blast was seen to go high into the air, blowing out windows in the 15-storey Wasma 89 Graha Sampoerna building next to the Australian embassy, and damaging other buildings in the area.
The gates to the embassy were damaged. The building - a low-rise structure on a mound - has been designed at an angle to withstand bomb attacks.
ElShinta radio station quoted a witness saying a police truck and a taxi in front of the Australian embassy had been blown apart and the high steel fence surrounding the building was damaged.
A Reuters reporter on the scene said there was a hole in the embassy gate and he saw some people with what looked like minor injuries leaving the complex.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said it was not clear if the Australian embassy was the target of the blast.
She said officials in Canberra had been in contact with staff at the embassy, who said there had been a blast in the vicinity of the embassy.
Windows at the embassy were shattered by the explosion and staff had been evacuated.
``There are shattered windows, including at the Australian Embassy, and cars have been damaged, but there are no confirmed injuries,'' the spokeswoman said.
The blast occurred about 1.30pm Australian time, she said.
Witnesses reported white smoke into the air after the blast.
A spokesman at national police headquarters in Jakarta said bomb squad officers were on their way to the embassy.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has been hit by sporadic bomb attacks in recent years, including blasts in Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and at a luxury Jakarta hotel in August 2003 that killed 12.
In recent weeks several Western embassies, including those of the United States and Australia, have warned their citizens about possible attacks by militants.
Last year, 12 people died in a suicide attack on the JW Marriott hotel in the same district.
The al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah group has been blamed for several high profile bomb attacks in Indonesia including the August 2003 attack on Jakarta's Marriott Hotel and the October 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali.
Agencies
Source.
Not unexpected - I hope they are proud of themselves - sounds as though, as usual, they have mainly killed their own poor citizens.
Sadly, this isn't surprising at all. For all sorts of reasons, like Australia's strong connections with the US in Iraq, Australia's position on East Timor, our poor relationship with Indonesia these days, & so many other things ....
Indonesia has a huge Muslim population. Some of that Muslim population is politically extreme, as we have already witnessed with the Bali bombings. I'm wondering if this has more to do with internal Indonesian politics (the coming election) or support for broader international issues . Who knows?
ABC saying no Australians killed - all embassy staff accounted for.
Authorities now saying 6 dead, more than 100 injured.
Indonesian authorities seem to be still silent.
It is believed to have been a car bomb, with none or only minor damages in the embassy itself.
The Jakarta Post reports of eight death by now.
Aaaargh - the die re terror attacks from Islamic fundamentalists in Indonesia was cast as soon as we went into East Timor.
I supported East Timor, come hell or high water.
I don't get it - what do they want now? Recapture East Timor?..
What do you mean by "recapture", Galilite?
From the CIA-World-Factbook:
Quote:The Portuguese colony of Timor declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975 and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later. It was incorporated into Indonesia in July 1976 as the province of East Timor. A campaign of pacification followed over the next two decades, during which an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 individuals lost their lives. On 30 August 1999, in a UN-supervised popular referendum, the people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. During 1999-2001, anti-independence militias - supported by Indonesia - conducted indiscriminate violence. On 20 May 2002, East Timor was internationally recognized as an independent state and the world's newest democracy.
Source
"The modus operandi is similar to the October 2002 Bali bombings and August 2003 JW Marriot Hotel bombing," Indonesian National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said.
"There are eight people dead as of 4 p.m. and 161 people are known to have been injured," Ministry of Health spokeswoman Mariani said.
Eleven killed in embassy bombing
September 9, 2004 - 7:51PM
The death toll in the bombing at the Australian embassy in Jakarta is believed to have risen to 11, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said.
Before leaving Adelaide for Jakarta tonight, Mr Downer said it was believed 11 Indonesians were killed in the bombing - one who was a guard at the embassy, four Indonesian police and the rest civilians.
The Associated Press quoted the Indonesian health ministry as saying 161 people were wounded. Three of the dead were policemen guarding the building, police said.
Mr Downer left with AFP Chief Mick Keelty on a flight from Adelaide at about 6.30pm (CST). Mr Downer's opposition counterpart Kevin Rudd is also expected to travel to Jakarta tonight.
"It's the view of the Indonesian National Police that this bombing had all the hallmarks of a Jemaah Islamiah operation," Mr Downer said.
Mr Keelty said AFP bomb experts and post-blast analysts were also being flown to Jakarta.
"Obviously we know from the Bali Bombing and the Marriott bombing that early evidence, once it's secured, provides the best evidence," Mr Keelty said.
"It is a car bomb; it's not confirmed at this stage whether it was a suicide bomb."
Mr Downer said he was likely to remain in Jakarta until at least tomorrow night.
Political leaders have rushed to condem the attack.
Prime Minister John Howard said Australia would not be intimidated by terrorism after the car bomb explosion.
Mr Howard said he did not believe Australia was now at more risk of a terror attack.
"I have no advice to revise up the security risk in Australia," he said.
Opposition Leader Mark Lathan said terrorists who bombed the Australian embassy in Jakarta were evil and barbaric and must be hunted down.
"The news that the embassy staff, the Australian embassy staff, have been accounted for is obviously good, it's encouraging," he said.
"It's been a serious incident. The size of the bomb and the crater is obviously of concern and we'll have to wait for the fuller details as the matter is investigated in full."
Mr Latham would not be drawn on what the attack meant for the war on terror.
"We need to pay respect for those who lost their lives, for the loved ones, to the embassy staff who have been affected by this and offer our support to ensure that the consequences of the attack are dealt with and that those responsible for the act themselves are brought to justice in the harshest possible terms as quickly as possible," he said.
The bomb, which exploded around 1.15pm AEST about four metres from the entrance gate of the embassy, left a crater three metres deep.
All front windows of the building had been blown in from the blast, which came from what appeared to be a large car bomb..
"There are a handful of locally-engaged staff who have not been accounted for," Mr Howard told reporters.
"The information I have to date indicates no Australians have been killed or seriously injured."
Nine Australian Federal Police bomb experts, a senior medical officer and a staff counsellor would also make the trip.
Eighty-eight Australians were killed in the Bali bombings in October 2002.
In August last year, 12 people died when the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta was bombed.
- AAP
Galilite wrote:I don't get it - what do they want now? Recapture East Timor?..
The people most likely to be behind the bombing are the Jemaah Islamiya:
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ji.htm
Their spiritual leader believes in the formation of a greater Islamic state of Indonesia - within which he includes Northern Australia.
Australia is therefore a bit of a target anyway.
Presumably we must also be punished for the insult of militarily assisting the largely christian folk of East Timor to break away from Islamic Indonesia - and for supporting the US in attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.
I think the intervention in East Timor alone would have made us a target, though - though Iraq has doubtless made us more of one.
I doubt they expect East Timor back any time soon, though - revenge and the hope of discouraging Oz from further attacks on Islamic countries would be the main aim, I think.
dlowan wrote:
Their spiritual leader believes in the formation of a greater Islamic state of Indonesia - within which he includes Northern Australia.
and the group will also include Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand. ...oh, this is also content of the link.
Yes - Thailand and the Philippines are also suffering terror bombings.
Hmm... First time EVER that terrorists have specifically targeted Australian interests... EVER!
How many times is it that Howard and Downer have denied we are at greater risk from terrorism since joining the 'coalition of the willing'?
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