Saturday, October 01, 2005
HEADS, FEET LOCATED
Three suicide bombers were responsible for the Bali attacks, reports AP:
Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai, one of Indonesia’s top anti-terrorism officials, said Sunday that the three attackers went into the restaurants on wearing explosive vests. The remains of their bodies were found at the scenes, he said.
"I have seen them. All that is left is their head and feet,” he told The Associated Press. “By the evidence we can conclude the bombers were carrying the explosives around the waists."
Not sure how that squares with the mention here that four unexploded bombs were found after the blasts. Three Australians are now believed dead, together with 12 Indonesians. Among the 101 wounded: 49 Indonesians, 17 Australians, six Koreans, three Japanese and two Americans. Muslims weren’t behind the attacks, claims Indonesia Council Of Holy Warriors spokesman Fauzan Al Anshari: “This is a grand design to again put Muslim people and Ustadz (honored cleric) Abu into a corner.”
UPDATE. One dead in Oklahoma, where a suicide bomber apparently intended killing only himself.
UPDATE II. Australian rugby player Mick Collis, in Bali for a competition, says he was warned of the Bali attacks by an Australian resident:
"We got up here on the Wednesday and on the Thursday he said to us they had found some detonators around the place and then he said that some of his contacts he had - he called them sort of the Bali mafia - they had warned him.
"They said ‘look, with the guys coming up, if you are white, don’t come into town on the Saturday night’.
"We just thought, well, we didn’t need to be told twice.
"We’re not the brightest of people - rugby players - but a warning like that sunk in pretty quick.”
UPDATE III. A second Australian death, that of a 48-year-old NSW woman, is confirmed.
UPDATE IV. Travel agencies report a rush of Bali cancellations.
UPDATE V. A report out of Kuwait claims 11 Britons are confirmed dead. Most likely this is wrong.
UPDATE VI. Australian Peter Hughes, a survivor of the 2002 Bali attacks: “I feel we’re pretty much a soft target and I don’t want it to happen, but I just feel we need to be more aware, because these guys are crazy.”