Officials: Blasts not sign of terrorism rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Friday a pair of suicide bombings in luxury American hotels in the Indonesian capital gave proof of the need to remain vigilant against terrorist groups. But officials said they do not see the attacks as a sign that violent extremism is on the rise again in Indonesia.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressed official U.S. dismay at the blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed at least eight people and wounded more than 50, including eight Americans.

Other U.S. officials said Indonesia’s recent rejection of fundamentalist Islamic candidates and a four-year hiatus from heavy terrorist activity provide hope that Friday’s blast was not an indicator of renewed militant strength. But some counterterrorism experts warned that officials needed to brace for that possibility — a concern Obama pointed to in his own statement.

“Indonesia has been steadfast in combating violent extremism, and has successfully curbed terrorist activity within its borders,” Obama said. “However, these attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries.”

Obama planned to call Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to express his sympathy and offer U.S. help. In his statement released by the White House, the president said “the American people stand by the Indonesian people in this difficult time, and the U.S. government stands ready to help the Indonesian government respond to and recover from these outrageous attacks as a friend and partner.”

Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, extended “my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones.”

The attacks were the first in Indonesia in four years after a series of devastating bombings that followed the Sept. 11 terror strikes in New York and Washington.

Both Obama and Clinton, who was traveling abroad and issued her own statement from a refueling stop in the Czech Republic, said the attacks were reminders that the threat from extremists remained potent.

Suspicion of responsibility for the attacks has already fallen on the Southeast Asian Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, JI, or its allies. The network is blamed for past attacks in Indonesia, including a 2003 bombing at the same J.W. Marriott in Jakarta in which 12 people died and the 2002 attacks on two Bali nightclubs that killed 202.

After Friday’s attacks, Yudhoyono said they were carried out by a “terrorist group” and vowed to arrest the perpetrators. He also suggested a possible link to the national election last week that is expected to hand him another five-year term as president.

That election perturbed some Muslim groups who see the 59-year-old retired general as too pro-Western. But others see the vote as having helped cement progress in the predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million in moving beyond an era wracked by secessionist conflicts, militancy and financial uncertainty.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood declined to comment on who he thought might have been behind Friday’s strikes but noted that terrorist groups would feel pressured by Indonesia’s democratic trends.