Indonesian and Australian investigators will on Friday continue sifting through the wreckage caused by a massive bomb which exploded outside the Australian embassy compound in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday morning, killing at least nine people and injuring 182.
Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer, flew to Jakarta on Thursday night, along with the federal police chief and head of the domestic intelligence agency. Downer, who described the bombing as a ”brutal, cruel and callous attack”, said his government would provide ”every support to the Indonesian government and officials to catch those responsible”. With him were Australian forensic experts, who immediately went to help local police scour the scene. The blast devastated about 10 multistorey office buildings, destroyed a dozen passing cars and could be heard up to 16km away.
Indonesia and Australia both immediately blamed Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a militant Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda, for the attack.
On Thursday night an Arabic internet forum carried a purported JI statement claiming responsibility, Reuters news agency reported. It warned of more attacks unless Australia withdraws forces from Iraq.
”We decided to make Australia pay in Jakarta today when one of the mujahideen brothers carried out a martyrdom operation at the Australian embassy,” the statement said.
”We advise all Australians to get out of Indonesia, or we will make it a grave for them … and the Australian government to get out of Iraq, and if it doesn’t we will direct a number of painful blows.”
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the statement which appeared in a chat room that has sometimes carried claims from Islamic groups which turned out to be false.
On Thursday night analysts were divided on how the attack would affect Australia’s federal election on October 9. There were suspicions that the bombing was designed to emulate the Madrid train attack in March, which was credited with turning opinion against Jose Maria Aznar’s government.
The prime minister, John Howard, has come under intense criticism over his decision to back the war, which his opponents say has made Australia more vulnerable to terror attacks. ”This is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism,” Howard said on Thursday night.
All Thursday’s fatalities were Indonesian, four of them police or civilian security officers. Another was an embassy gardener and a sixth a woman collecting a visa. Three were passersby.
About a dozen Australians were slightly hurt by flying glass and collapsing ceilings, as were four Chinese nationals, and three Greek diplomats in their embassy on the 12th floor of a neighbouring building.
The bomb left a crater several metres deep outside the Australian embassy compound and blew a 10-metre hole in the security fence, but the heavily fortified building suffered only minor damage.
The Greek mission, in contrast, was gutted, as were scores of offices in buildings along the 10-lane Rasuna Said Street in the heart of Jakarta’s business district.
An Australian embassy spokesperson said the mission and the consulate in Bali would be closed until further notice and that non-essential staff and dependents had been given the option of repatriation.
The Indonesian president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was in neighbouring Brunei for a royal wedding, cut short her visit and went straight to the scene on her return.
Indonesia’s police chief, General Da’i Bachtiar, said the bombers’ method virtually mirrored the Bali bombing in 2002 that killed 202 and last year’s bombing of Jakarta’s Marriott hotel that killed 12. – Guardian Unlimited Â