Identification efforts intensify

Many officials suspect that two Malaysian bomb experts were involved.
WASHINGTON POST
BALI, Indonesia -- Investigators strengthened their efforts Sunday to determine the identities of suicide bombers who attacked three tourist restaurants a day earlier, saying they were looking for clues among tiny pieces of human flesh stuck to explosive material and scattered about the scenes.
The Bali police chief, I Made Pastika, displayed pictures of the heads of the three male suicide bombers at a news conference. He said the men were responsible for the near-simultaneous blasts that killed 22 people, including several foreigners. Estimates of the death toll have varied, with some accounts reporting that 26 or more people were killed.
Pastika also showed an amateur video obtained by police that recorded one bomber, wearing a black jacket, walking into the Raja restaurant in Kuta Square, a popular tourist shopping and dining spot. Seconds later, at 7:45 p.m., the man was obscured by a flash of light and an explosion.
Islanders react
As the police try to identify the group responsible for the attacks, many Balinese are wondering whether any amount of police effort will restore confidence in their island, whose tourism-dependent economy had just begun to rebound after devastating terror bombings three years ago that killed 202 people.
"Of course what happened last night will hurt our income, just like the previous bombings," said Yani Kareng, as she awaited customers at her modest food stall on Jimbaran Beach, less than 50 yards from the site of one blast at Cafe Nyoman, a beachfront seafood restaurant. Business dropped by half at her fried-rice stand after the 2002 bombings, she said.
"It started to get better only in the last couple of months," she said. "Then this happened."
Many of her customers are local Balinese who work as drivers and tour guides for the foreign tourists frequenting the five-star hotels and restaurants in the area, she said. On this day, her customers included police and military who milled around the crime scene, which was defined by yellow police tape around a strip of outdoor restaurants with dozens of overturned wooden tables and chairs. Half-eaten plates of fish and crab and half-empty mugs of beer still sat on the tables that were left standing.
Hundreds of Balinese, dressed in sarongs and shorts, flocked to the site to watch investigators comb the sand for evidence left by the suicide bombers. Some wore white T-shirts that read: "[Expletive] Terrorist."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a quick trip to Bali on Sunday. He said at a news conference that authorities were trying to determine "the people, the cells and the clues supporting this incident to bring them to justice."
Top suspects
Investigators have not determined who planned the attacks, but security analysts based in Jakarta said the blasts were likely the work of Muslim militants associated with two Malaysian bomb experts, Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad Top.
"They've got to be at the top of the list of suspects," said Sidney Jones, Indonesian director for the International Crisis Group. "The question is, who they would have ended up with as partners."
Jones said her group had received credible information in the last two months that the two Malaysians had formed an armed group called Thoifah Muqatilah, or Combat Unit, but it remained unclear whether this was a new armed wing of Jemaah Islamiah, the underground militant group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and two subsequent bombings in Jakarta that killed 23 people.
The two Malaysians have been working largely outside the Jemaah Islamiah command structure since at least August 2003, when their followers bombed the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Jones said. Many members of the radical Indonesian group believe it is a misreading of Islam to attack civilians, she said.
The new Combat Unit has been recruiting young Indonesians from outside the Jemaah Islamiah network, Jones said. Some are veterans of recent Muslim-Christian conflicts in other regions of Indonesia, she said.
In August, Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to heighten their vigilance because he suspected that militants were preparing to strike again. But security analysts suggested his remarks were based less on specific intelligence than on the long period of relative calm since the bombing of the Australian Embassy last year in Jakarta.