Five bombers made Bali suicide pact, Australian police say

3.30pm

SYDNEY - The suicide bomber suspected of detonating one of the Bali blasts was part of a group of five men who had made a suicide pact, the head of the Australian federal police said today.

Police commissioner Mick Keelty told Australian television that DNA samples had been taken from relatives of one suspected suicide bomber and were being analysed in Canberra to help confirm whether the theory of a suicide attack was true.

Keelty told Channel Nine television that four people being held by Indonesian police in connection with the October 12 bombings in Bali were associates of the attack's alleged mastermind Imam Samudra.

"One of the more significant arrests that we confirmed last night was a person called Agus. Agus plus the person Iqbal were (among) a group of five who were committed to Samudra," Keelty said.

"These five were so committed to Samudra that they had in fact formed a suicide pact," he said.

Around 90 of the 185 people who died when bombs ripped through packed beach bars were Australian, and Australian investigators have been working with Indonesian police.

Indonesian and Australian police say the nightclub blasts possibly began with a suicide bomber attack on Paddy's Bar in Kuta Beach, before a larger blast destroyed the nearby Sari Club, and believe that suicide bomber was Iqbal.

Keelty said that theory would bear out if the DNA being analysed by federal police scientists helped to identify remains found at Paddy's Bar as those of Iqbal.

Samudra, identified as the ground commander for the operation, is being questioned by Indonesian police in Jakarta about other attacks before being taken to Bali.

Indonesian and foreign officials say they suspect Southeast Asian Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah, which allegedly has links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, was involved in the Bali attack.

The Australian newspaper today quoted a report by US academic Zachary Abuza as saying Jemaah Islamiah and other radical Islamic groups in the region formed relations with al Qaeda nine years ago.

Since then, they have sent up to 3000 followers for explosives and weapons training to al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, said the report, entitled "Tentacles of Terror: al Qaeda's Southeast Asian Network".
Abuza said top al Qaeda operatives Ayman al Zawahiri and the late Mohammed Atef travelled to Indonesia's restive Aceh province and strife-torn Moluccas islands in June 2000.

"Both of them were clearly impressed by the lack of security, the support and extent of the Muslim population," Abuza wrote.

"This visit was part of a wider strategy of shifting the base of Osama bin Laden's terrorist operations from the subcontinent to South-East Asia."

- REUTERS

Bali messages and information on New Zealanders

Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade

* Latest travel advisory for Indonesia

* Bali Bombing Hotline: 0800 432 111

Full coverage: Bali bomb blast

Related links