Bali blast: Osama’s echo heard

In the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 187 people — among them Australians, Americans and other foreigners — were kille...

In the worst terrorist attack since September 11, 187 people — among them Australians, Americans and other foreigners — were killed in a massive car bomb blast in this tourist resort late last night. A second bomb exploded almost simultaneously near the island’s US consular office, but there were no casualties.

The
nightclub in Bali, Indonesia, where 187 died. Reuters

There was no claim of responsibility for the blast — which occurred on the second anniversary of the attack on the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen, killing a large number of US troops — but Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, a said al-Qaeda activists were suspected to be behind it. The Yemen attack has been linked to al-Qaeda as well.

And, as his government prepared to take aim at Iraq, US President George W. Bush urged the world to confront terrorism and condemned the explosions as ‘‘a cowardly act’’.

‘‘Terrorists have once again targeted innocents, this time in Indonesia’’, Bush said. ‘‘The world must confront this global menace, terrorism. And, we must call this despicable act by its rightful name, murder.’’

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An FBI team was en route to Bali to help in the blast probe, a State Department spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The Bali explosions heightened concerns that al-Qaeda has regrouped and planned new attacks. This is just months after al-Qaeda was supposedly routed by U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

Less than a week ago, Downer — speaking in Malaysia — had said the organisation causing most concern was a group called Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Today, he said JI did have links to al-Qaeda and it’s conceivable that an organisation like that could be behind this action.

JI is allegedly headed by Abubakar Bashir, living openly in Indonesia despite intense international pressure for his arrest.

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A senior US official said al-Qaeda has long had a presence in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, but he had no information on whether al-Qaeda was involved in the Bali explosions.

‘‘There are a number of reasons that you have to say that it might be them, but we don’t know that’’, the official said. ‘‘They’ve been in Indonesia… they’re all running from Afghanistan. They’ve got to go someplace.’’

The blasts, which came three days after the U.S. Government issued a worldwide terror alert, drew statements of condemnation from the UK, Australia and Germany; there was also one from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in London. (Reuters)