Police detain suspects over 2005 Bali blasts

DENPASAR - Three men detained as part of Indonesian police raids last week in which a top Asian militant was killed have been named suspects over October's bombings on Bali island.

They are the first suspects named in the wake of the suicide bombings at three restaurants on the Indonesian resort island on October 1, which killed 20 people.

Police said the men were recruits of Malaysian Azahari bin Husin, a master bombmaker, who was killed last Wednesday in a shootout with police in East Java province. Police have already linked Azahari to the latest Bali attacks.

The three men were picked up in the central Java city of Semarang last week.

Asked by reporters if they were the first suspects in police custody, Bali police spokesman Antonius Reniban said: "At this moment, those we have in Bali are these three."

Reniban said they were being investigated under the anti-terrorism law on suspicion of providing assistance to the bombers who blew up their explosives-laden backpacks on October 1.

"These three people were arrested in Semarang. They have been brought here so we can intensify the investigation in relation to the cases at Kuta and Jimbaran," Reniban said, referring to the locations of last month's attacks.

Azahari was a senior figure in Jemaah Islamiah, a militant group seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda.

Authorities say he also designed and supervised the making of the car bomb that caused the most damage in the 2002 attacks on Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

- REUTERS