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14-10-2002 Scotsman 'Cowardly,wicked and barbaric'
By GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN UNITED States security sources believe a taped message from Osama bin Laden was the trigger for Indonesian terrorists to launch a devastating attack on a Bali nightclub packed with tourists, killing at least 187 people and injured more than 300. Two bomb blasts on Saturday night ripped through the Sari Club, a popular haunt for Western tourists in the resort of Kuta, in the worst act of terrorism since the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. Last night, a US senator warned, after a briefing from FBI and CIA officials, that the explosion could herald the start of a new and devastating terror campaign. "I believe that this is the beginning of a lot more (that) we're going to see, perhaps in the US," said Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The British ambassador Richard Gozney said at least five or six Britons died in the blast, and a further 25 - some of whom were in the area at the time - were unaccounted for. Dozens more were injured. As an international anti-terrorism operation got under way in Kuta, it emerged that the FBI suspects audio recordings of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, may have triggered the devastating attack. It is thought the messages, broadcast on the al-Jazeera satellite network last Sunday and Tuesday, were an instruction to their supporters to begin a new campaign of attacks. In a warning issued 48 hours before Saturday's car bomb attack, the FBI - which last night sent a team to Bali - said: "The statements suggest that an attack may have been approved, while the specific timing is left to operatives in the field." The US and Australia both pointed the finger of blame at Jemaah Islamiah, an Indonesian-based radical Islamic organisation sympathetic to the al-Qaeda cause. Its leader, Abubaker Baasyir, has been linked to plots against the US by an al-Qaeda operative who was seized in Indonesia earlier this year and the group has been blamed for a failed plot last December to bomb the US, British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Singapore. Just a week ago, the US embassy in Indonesian capital Jakarta began to prepare the evacuation of non-essential staff. President Bush promised to help Indonesia investigate the bombing, describing it as "a cowardly attack designed to create terror and chaos". The majority of the dead are thought to be from Australia. John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, said: "This wicked and cowardly attack, clearly on the evidence available to us, is an act of terrorism that can have no justification. I can only say again that the war against terrorism must go on with unrelenting vigour." Mr Howard added: "This is a huge national tragedy for Australia and for Australians." The Australian government had been warned by the US earlier on Saturday that it could be targeted by terrorists and Mr Howard said Australians - who travel to Bali in their thousands - had to realise their geographic isolation did not protect them from terrorist attack. Last night, tourists were scrambling to leave Bali, previously seen as a peaceful haven, amid a growing sense that no target is safe from attack. Investigators believe the bombs were detonated in quick succession, the first outside Paddy's Discotheque and the second in a jeep-like vehicle parked 30 yards further down the narrow street outside the Sari Club. The second blast ripped into the open-air bar, detonating gas cylinders and triggering a massive burst of flames. A third, smaller bomb exploded outside the US consulate in nearby Denpasar, but no-one was injured. Witnesses described how body parts were scattered around the wreckage of the club and on the rooftops of nearby buildings. "There are charred and mangled bodies everywhere, it is unbelievable," said Cyril Terrien, a French photographer at the scene. Indonesia's national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar called the attack "the worst act of terror in Indonesia's history" and Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri wept as she toured the wreckage. Indonesia has been accused of being slow to react to the terror threat, even after neighbouring countries arrested scores of militants from Jemaah Islamiah - which wants to establish a pan-Islamic state across Malaysia, Indonesia and the southern Philippines - earlier this year.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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