Web statement links Jemaah Islamiyah to embassy blast

1.00pm

DUBAI - The Jemaah Islamiyah group says it was responsible for yesterday's attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and warned of more attacks, unless Australia withdraws forces from Iraq.

"We decided to make Australia pay in Jakarta today when one of the Mujahideen brothers carried out a martyrdom (suicide) operation at the Australian embassy," the Arabic statement from the "al-Jama'a al-Islamiya in East Asia" said, in apparent reference to the Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia.

It was not immediately possible to verify the claim which appeared in a public web forum which has sometimes carried claims from Islamic groups which turned out to be false.

A powerful car bomb exploded outside the Jakarta embassy on Thursday, killing at least nine people and wounding 182 in an attack Indonesian police said bore the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiah.

The al Qaeda-linked Islamic network has been blamed for previous blasts in Indonesia such as the Bali bomb attacks in 2002 that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

It was also accused of a suicide bomb blast at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel in August 2003 that killed 12 people.

The group does not usually post statements on Arabic web sites which have become popular among insurgents fighting US troops and their allies in Iraq over the last year.

"We advise all Australians to get out of Indonesia, or we will make it a grave for them ... and the Australian government to get out of Iraq, and if it doesn't we will direct a number of painful blows," the statement said.

- REUTERS