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Saturday July 31, 2010

What we're talking about

Body remains indicate suicide bombing

Posted by: By Nicole Melbourne and Ben Wise | 17 July, 2009 - 4:41 PM
Bombings 3AW's Indonesia correspondent Justin Hale told Denis Walter on Friday afternoon the way the explosions in Jakarta's Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels destroyed victims' bodies indicates the attacks may have been carried out by suicide bombers.

"The police have found the headless and limbless remains of two people inside the Ritz Hotel and another unconfirmed report of them finding a similar corpse in the Marriott Hotel," Hale said from Indonesia, where so far nine people have died as a result of the co-ordinated attacks. 

"Now when they find remains like this at the centre of an explosion, it's more than likely going to be suicide bombers."

"They found similar remains after the Bali bombings and the first Marriott bombing several years ago.  So it looks like we are dealing with possibly three suicide bombers."

"There is no doubt now the authorities have come out and said yes it is a terrorist attack; more than likely Jamal Islamia – almost certainly suicide bombers. It's got all the trademarks of Jamal Islamia attacks; especially the synchronicity of it, the suicide-bombing element. So it looks like they have struck yet again."

When Hale was quizzed as to whether the two hotels bombed on Friday morning were more likley to be from bombs detinated inside the building or outside, in cars for instance, Hale said:

"It would appear, and this raises a lot of questions that both of those explosions at that hotel emanated from within the hotel not from outside. This means someone or these people would have had to have taken a bomb inside the hotel."

"Now they say they have had a look at CCTV footage and interviewed eyewitnesses. There were no suspicious comings or goings just previous to the explosions which means the perpetrators were more than likely inside already and inside for quite a while."

"How they got their explosions into the hotel is a source of speculation because at all the star rated hotels in Jakarta and in Bali, there are strict security measures in place. You have to go through metal detectors, you are frisked down, all your bags are checked. How they actually got that in there is still a question that needs to be answered whether there was just a drop in the standard of security or whether the bomb was brought in bit by bit in small amounts and assembled in a room."

3AW News on the hour will bring you the latest on the terror attacks.

The affects of the bombings

Neil Mitchell Neil Mitchell discusses what the latest terror attack in Indonesia mean for the region. Click his image to watch the video.

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