Bomb warning sent by text

Indonesian police were warned 45 minutes before a suicide car bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that Western missions would be attacked if a prominent militant cleric was not freed, Australia said yesterday.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told a news conference in Jakarta the warning to release Abu Bakar Bashir, the accused spiritual leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant group, was conveyed in a phone text message to an elite police unit.

"[They] received an SMS message about 45 minutes before the attack that there would be an attack on Western embassies unless Abu Bakar Bashir was released," Downer said.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty told the news conference it would have been difficult to act on the text warning since such threats came in regularly.

Bashir, 66, is in police detention awaiting formal charges over accusations of involvement in terror acts. He has denied any wrongdoing or links to Jemaah Islamiyah, a shadowy Southeast Asian Islamic organisation seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.

The bomb's toll would have been much worse if the bombers had had better intelligence.

Just last Saturday, the annual Australian Ball in Jakarta was moved from a five-star hotel because of warnings from the Americans of an imminent attack on a Western target.

The party was moved to the grounds of the Australian Embassy because it was viewed as safer. The street outside was crowded with Australian expats queuing to get in.

That was last Saturday. It is not a scene anyone expects to see again soon in Jakarta.

Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday that Australia was aware terrorists might have moved their focus from Western-style hotels in Indonesia to other targets.

Last week, Australia revised its travel advice for Indonesia after US authorities warned hotels could be the subject of attack.

"We did, so I'm told, earlier this week receive some indications that the possible focus of that would shift from the hotels to somewhere else," Howard told the Nine Network.

"But there was no indication the Australian Embassy was going to be targeted."

An Australian girl critically injured in the Jakarta embassy bombing was yesterday airlifted to Singapore to be joined by her grieving father.

She is still unaware her mother died in the attack.

Five-year-old Elisabeth Manuela Bambina Musu - affectionately known as Manny - was flown to Singapore for treatment for injuries suffered when she and her mother were cut down by the blast as they stood outside the embassy.

She had been about to pick up her Australian passport after becoming a citizen on September 1.

Her mother, 27-year-old Indonesian Maria Eva Kumalawati, was one of nine to die in the explosion. The girl's father, Sydney police officer Dave Norman, distraught at the loss of his partner Maria, flew to Singapore with his mother and said his priority was to be with his child.

Elisabeth today regained consciousness in a Jakarta hospital but relatives said she still did not know her mother was dead.

She was escorted on a stretcher out of a Jakarta hospital by doctors and nurses.

Jemaah Islamiyah claimed responsibility for the attack in an internet statement. It was not immediately possible to verify the claim.

"We decided to call Australia to account, which we consider one of the worst enemies of God, and God's religion of Islam," the statement said. The group warned of more attacks unless Australia withdrew its forces from Iraq.


- AGENCIES