Terrorists Strike Australia

Bory

Active member
Im not sure how publisied this is overseas, but its virtullay everywhere downhere:
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A huge bomb exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta today - killing at least seven people and injuring more than 100.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described the bombing as a "terrorist act" aimed at Australia.

"It is clearly a terrorist attack, it was outside the Australian embassy, you would have to conclude that it was directed towards Australia," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Adelaide.

Prime Minister John Howard said no Australians were injured but his information was that six others were killed.

Local radio in Jakarta is reporting more than 100 were injured.

The bomb exploded metres from the embassy's main entrance, tearing the heavily-fortified gates apart, shattering windows in the building and leaving a three-metre-deep crater in the road.

The blast was audible up to 15 km away, Indonesian television reported.

"This bomb seems to be bigger than the Marriott one. There are so many victims," a police officer named Katmadi told Reuters, referring to the August 2003 attack on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel, which killed 12.

The blast came just 24 hours after Jakarta police said security at hotels would be boosted in the wake of a US State Department travel warning.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri cut short a visit to Brunei today and headed back to Jakarta following the bombing, a presidential source said.

"The president is returning today from Brunei. She plans to go to the bomb site," the source said.

Police have confirmed it was a bomb blast, and Mr Howard said there was evidence it was a car bomb. Pictures showed the wreckage of a truck outside the embassy.

Police established an exclusion zone covering a one kilometre radius around the blast site.

Fleets of ambulances began ferrying more victims to hospitals throughout the city.

The explosion in Rasuna Said Street was heard five kilometres away and thought to be on a scale with the blast that killed 12 at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August 2003.

Metro TV in Jakarta reported that the plume from the blast was seen to go high into the air, blowing out windows in the 15-storey Wasma 89 Graha Sampoerna building next to the Australian embassy, and damaging other buildings in the area.

The gates to the embassy were damaged. The building - a low-rise structure on a mound - has been designed at an angle to withstand bomb attacks.

A Reuters witness on the scene saw pieces of a head, hair and flesh and other body parts on the street.

"Get out of the way. You are stepping on evidence. There are flesh, bones, and remnants all over this place. Back off,'' a police officer said over a megaphone.

"My friend Anton just died, my friend Anton just died. He was a security guard,'' guard Siti Riani said, sobbing.

Hundreds of police were outside the embassy and thousands of people swarming in the street.

Police were forming a line pushing people back. "I was driving and suddenly there was an explosion,'' said one survivor, Paryadi. "Now I'm bleeding from the head.''

Bleeding victims being taken from the embassy complex to ambulances, but police said the actual explosion was probably outside the embassy.

"It seems that the blast came from outside the embassy. If you look at it, the buildings that are most damaged are the buildings around the embassy, not the embassy,'' police major Widodo said.

ElShinta radio station quoted a witness saying a police truck and a taxi in front of the Australian embassy had been blown apart.

A Reuters reporter on the scene said there was a hole in the embassy gate and he saw some people with what looked like minor injuries leaving the complex.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said it was not clear if the Australian embassy was the target of the blast.

She said officials in Canberra had been in contact with staff at the embassy, who said there had been a blast in the vicinity of the embassy.

Windows at the embassy were shattered by the explosion and staff had been evacuated.

"There are shattered windows, including at the Australian Embassy, and cars have been damaged, but there are no confirmed injuries,'' the spokeswoman said.

The blast occurred about 1.30pm Australian time, she said.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, has been hit by sporadic bomb attacks in recent years, including blasts in Bali in October 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel in August 2003 that killed 12.

In recent weeks several Western embassies, including those of the United States and Australia, have warned their citizens about possible attacks by militants.

The al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah group has been blamed for several high profile bomb attacks in Indonesia including the Marriott attack and the October 2002 bombings on Bali.

© SMH.com



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Link: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/09/1094530741977.html
 
I heard it on the news yesterday....

I heard that at least 9 people are dead now, and about 180 injured.

The police did receive a SMS warning about 1 hour before the blast.

Someone affiliated with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) -- a local terrorist group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network -- sent the text message 45 minutes before Thursday's attack, threatening to attack if Indonesian authorities did not release JI's spiritual leader and Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, according to Howard and other Australian authorities.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/10/indonesia.blast/index.html
 
ji bomb?

it was aperently a car/truck bomb. footage was shown last night on the local aus tv of the vehicle exploding in the road as it drove up to the gates. captured from a security camera at the embassy.
theres not point getting mad but i'm sure well get even at a later date 8)
 
I heard about this the other day. Iraq, Russia, and now the Aussies are getting attacks directed toward them. Good god is the entire world going to hell.
 
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