09-08-2004, 09:58 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Junkie
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More Islamic terrorism - Target: Australia
Quote:
Target Australia: Jakarta bomb kills 6
September 9, 2004 - 3:36PM
A huge bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta today - killing at least six people.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told local media the bombing was "clearly a terrorist act" aimed at Australia.
Prime Minister John Howard said no Australians were injured but his information was that six others were killed.
Local radio in Jakarta is reporting more than 100 were injured.
Police have confirmed it was a bomb blast, and Mr Howard said there was evidence it was a car bomb. Pictures showed the wreckage of a truck outside the embassy.
Police established an exclusion zone covering a one kilometre radius around the blast site.
Fleets of ambulances began ferrying more victims to hospitals throughout the city.
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.
A Reuters witness on the scene saw pieces of a head, hair and flesh and other body parts on the street.
``Get out of the way. You are stepping on evidence. There are flesh, bones, and remnants all over this place. Back off,'' a police officer said over a megaphone.
``My friend Anton just died, my friend Anton just died. He was a security guard,'' guard Siti Riani said, sobbing.
Hundreds of police were outside the embassy and thousands of people swarming in the street.
Police were forming a line pushing people back. ``I was driving and suddenly there was an explosion,'' said one survivor, Paryadi. ``Now I'm bleeding from the head.''
Bleeding victims being taken from the embassy complex to ambulances, but police said the actual explosion was probably outside the embassy.
``It seems that the blast came from outside the embassy. If you look at it, the buildings that are most damaged are the buildings around the embassy, not the embassy,'' police major Widodo said.
ElShinta radio station quoted a witness saying a police truck and a taxi in front of the Australian embassy had been blown apart.
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.
Sydney Morning Herald - http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...530741977.html
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One of the convicted Bali bombers (who killed nearly 200 people) were photographed out on day release enjoying a cup of coffee with an Indonesian police officer only last week. And a bunch of the others were acquited due to "technicalities" recently.
What's wrong with these people?
SIGH
My liberal minded nature is becoming more and more strained these days...
Mr Mephisto |
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