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Suicide bombers kill 25 in Bali tttacks
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-02 08:45
BALI, Indonesia - Suicide bombers wearing explosive vests targeted tourist resorts on Bali with coordinated attacks that devastated three crowded restaurants on Saturday night, killing at least 25 people. Two al-Qaida-linked fugitives suspected of masterminding the 2002 nightclub bombings on the same Indonesian island may have been involved, a top anti-terrorism official said.
Yasmin Abbyad (R), 18, points to debris as Sarah Dunn (L), 17, and Kaitlyn Lombardo, 17, carry personal belongings from Lombardo's flood damaged home, on the second day since residents of the "Uptown" neighborhood were allowed to visit and stay in their homes, in New Orleans October 1, 2005. [Reuters] |
Saturday's near-simultaneous blasts struck two seafood cafes in the Jimbaran beach resort and a three-story noodle and steakhouse in downtown Kuta. Kuta is the bustling tourist center of Bali where two nightclubs were bombed three years ago, also on a busy Saturday night, killing 202 people.
Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai said he suspected two Malaysian fugitives alleged to be key members of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group masterminded the latest attacks. The two are also accused of orchestrating the 2002 bombings which killed mostly foreigners and two other attacks in the Indonesian capital in 2003 and 2004. The latter attacks also involved suicide bombers.
"The modus operandi of Saturday's attacks is the same as the earlier ones," said Mbai, who identified the two suspected masterminds as Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top.
He said the two were not believed to be among the three suicide attackers. The assailants' remains were found at the bombing scenes but they have not yet been identified, 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 their waists."
It was not immediately clear whether the three suicide bombers were included in the death toll of 25.
Two Americans were among the 101 people injured.
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