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Foreign terrorists suspected in Bali
( 2002-10-17 15:35 ) (7 )

Indonesia's top security minister said Thursday that a group of foreign terrorists may have carried out the Bali nightclub bombing.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also said the alleged Indonesian leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional Muslim militant group also suspected in the attack, could face legal action.

"I don't want to say who is behind this act of terror," Yudhoyono said. "There could be involvement of foreign nationals or Indonesians or there could be joint cooperation between foreigners and Indonesians."

The comment came just a day after Yudhoyono denied that Jemaah Islamiyah existed in Indonesia. Indonesian government officials have long tried to delicately balance a crackdown on local militants with fears that aggressive moves could spark a backlash by the extremists.

Yudhoyono also said the government may take action against the Indonesian who has been identified as the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Bakar Bashir.

"We could also (take legal action) against Abu Bakar Bashir, but we are still unable to say which organization is behind this," Yudhoyono said in Bali.

Yudhoyono said that Indonesian investigators sent to interview Omar al-Faruq, a Kuwaiti citizen arrested in Indonesia and extradited to the United States in June, had returned and were reporting on their findings.

Al-Faruq is believed to have been a liaison between al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah.

"Legal action may be taken in coming days based on the results of the interrogation," Yudhoyono said.

Bashir has repeatedly denied any involvement in the blast.

Yudhoyono's comments also came as news reports said the international probe was focusing on a group of seven foreigners who had arrived in Indonesia two days prior to the blast.

The suspected terrorist cell, which entered Indonesia through the city of Semarang, about 250 miles east of Jakarta, was led by a Yemeni and a Malaysian, The Jakarta Post daily said. The nationalities of the others were unknown, but they may have included at least one European, the report said.

A spokesman for Indonesia's intelligence agency said he could not confirm the report.

Police in Bali said Thursday they had questioned 65 people — including a security guard, the brother of a man whose ID card was found at the blast scene and a former air force lieutenant colonel with a background in explosives.

"We have named no suspects yet," police chief Gen. Budi Setiawan said. He denied reports that any foreigners were being sought.

He said nine FBI (news - web sites) agents were working on the case with forensic investigators from Australia, Japan and Indonesia.

Australian officials have alleged that Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional radical group seeking a pan-Southeast Asian Islamic state and allegedly linked with al-Qaida, was at least partly responsible for the bombing, which killed at least 183 people, many of them Australian tourists.

Bashir was due to testify Thursday in a defamation case he brought against Time magazine earlier this month. But his lawyer said Bashir would not appear at the police station as planned because he was not feeling well.

U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce said a man who allegedly tried to hurl a small bomb at the office of the honorary U.S. consul in Bali's capital of Denpasar on Saturday had been injured when the device exploded prematurely. He said he assumed the man had been arrested, but police spokesmen denied anyone was detained after that explosion.

Boyce also disclosed that in the month before the Bali attack, he and other American envoys had discussed with Indonesian officials possible attacks against U.S. targets.

But he said the warnings were not specific to Indonesia. They coincided with a temporary closure of embassies in Jakarta and other regional capitals due to terrorist threats, during the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Indonesian government has struggled to shake off its image of having ignored months of warnings about terrorists being active here, particularly Jemaah Islamiyah.

In a sign of its newly found resolve, Jakarta police Thursday arrested Habib Rizieq Shihab, the head of a Muslim vigilante group blamed for a spate of raids against nightspots in the capital. Although the group has been active for two years, in the past police have simply ignored its well-publicized sweeps. It is not suspected of involvement in the Bali attack.

In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday he would travel to Bali later in the day to attend a memorial service for the victims, and look into problems Australians are having identifying remains of relatives and bringing them home for burial.

Australia has sent 45 investigators to join police from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and Indonesia.

Indonesian police believe they have found the residue of chemicals used in the bomb's detonator. The traces, which included evidence of TNT, were found spattered onto a parked motorcycle. Also found were traces of C-4, a plastic military explosive.

Jemaah Islamiyah has been accused of plotting to attack the U.S. and other Western embassies in Singapore earlier this year. Malaysia and Singapore have arrested scores of suspected members.