By Josh Meyer and John M. Glionna
Noordin Mohammad Top, a bomb maker regarded as the ideological leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, is the focus of the investigation into the twin hotel blasts in Jakarta.
July 18, 2009
International suspicion focused Friday on a Malaysian accountant-turned-bomb-maker as the instigator of a pair of blasts at Western hotels in Jakarta that may have signaled the reemergence of deadly attacks by Southeast Asian groups affiliated with Al Qaeda, according to counter-terrorism officials and analysts.
Noordin Mohammad Top, regarded as the ideological leader of the most violent wing of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, drew immediate suspicion because of his alleged involvement in attacks in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005, including bombings in Bali and Jakarta.
But after the region's first significant attack in four years, suspicion also fell on others in the sprawling network of militant cells known collectively as "JI." Those include other top Jemaah Islamiyah commanders and dozens of hard-liners released recently from Southeast Asian prisons, several current and former U.S. counter-terrorism officials said.
"JI is the only known terrorist organization in Southeast Asia that has the capacity, the network and the know-how to do this," said one senior U.S. federal law enforcement official who has spent years chasing the group in conjunction with authorities in the region. "They are the only game in town."
Authorities found explosives hidden beneath an Islamic boarding school on the Indonesian island of Java that has ties to Top's wife. Those munitions appeared similar to those used in Friday's near-simultaneous bombings, according to a second U.S. official.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intensifying investigation, which is being run by Indonesian authorities with little help from U.S. or allied governments. FBI officials, who frequently send investigators after such attacks, were waiting for a request from the government in Jakarta before doing so.
At least eight people were killed in the attacks on the high-rise JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which stand side-by-side in a fashionable business district of the capital frequented by Westerners.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks, which injured more than 50 people, including at least eight Americans. The U.S. State Department said no Americans were known to be among those killed.
The attack was condemned in separate statements issued on behalf of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama praised Indonesian officials for curbing militant activity in recent years.
"However, these attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries," Obama said.
Indonesia holds particular significance for Obama, who lived there for a time as a youth and may have been weighing a visit there in coming months. Obama moved with his family to Indonesia in 1967 and lived there between the ages of 6 and 10.
Indonesian authorities did not immediately name a suspect, and no group claimed immediate credit for the attacks. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono blamed a "terrorist group" and suggested a possible link to last week's national presidential election.
But evidence emerged Friday indicating that the explosions were the work of suicide bombers who were guests at the Marriott, which was also the target of a terrorist bombing in 2003 that killed 12 people.
Indonesian authorities said the attackers evaded hotel security, smuggling in their explosives and assembling the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an undetonated device was found after the explosions.
Josh Meyer, reporting from Washington
John M. Glionna, reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia
Josh.Meyer@latimes.com
John.Glionna@latimes.com
Staff writers Paul Richter, Peter Nicholas and Greg Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times