Negative Blogs

Police say Jakarta hotel bombers were guests

by admin on Jul.17, 2009, under Attack Suicide, Dead, Indonesia City, Militant Islamists

It took just a few minutes on Friday morning for Indonesia to be jolted back to the early years of this century - to a time when annual bomb attacks by militant Islamists linked to the group Jemaah Islamiah terrorised the country.

Friday’s bombs seem to bear all the hallmarks of those earlier attacks.

The targets were luxury hotels used by foreigners in the most developed part of the capital, Jakarta. One of the hotels, the Marriott, has even been hit before.

The method too appears to be familiar. Initial reports said the bodies of two suicide bombers had been found at one of the sites.

It feels all too much like the bad old days - the days of 2002 when attacks on the tourist island of Bali killed more than 200 people; or of 2003 when the Marriott suffered its first attack; or 2004 when the Australian embassy was hit; or a year later - again in Bali - when suicide bombers blew themselves up in beachside restaurants.

Jemaah Islamiah (JI), or the radical networks it spawned, have been blamed for every one of those attacks.

And all eyes will once again be on them.

But the militant landscape in Indonesia has changed since those years of violence.

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