Skip to main content

Jakarta hotels reopen after suicide bombings

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 JAKARTA: The five-star hotels hit by suicide bombers in Indonesia's capital nearly two weeks ago reopened Wednesday with tighter security, officials said.Attackers detonated explosives-laden luggage near the hotel lounges of the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton in Jakarta on July 17, killing themselves, seven victims and wounding more than 50 others.The blasts blew out windows and caused serious damage to the hotels' ground floors, but the structures remained intact and repairs were almost complete Wednesday when they reopened.The first terrorist bombings in Indonesia in nearly four years have prompted heightened security at the hotels, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said, without naming specific measures. Other potential targets where Westerners gather have also increased security.Els Ramadhita, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton, provided no details about the reopening, saying only that guests were again checking in.Police suspect the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah is responsible for the blasts, but have yet to provided evidence or name suspects.Sukarna said the investigation into the bombers is ongoing. Police are searching for a florist who did flower arrangements for both US-owned hotels. He resigned on the morning of the bombings and has not been seen since. They also are questioning the wife of Malaysian fugitive militant Noordin Mohammed Top.Jemaah Islamiyah and its splinter factions were behind the killing of more than 240 people in four prior attacks in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. Noordin allegedly planned the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings as well as attacks on the J.W. Marriott in 2003 and the Australian Embassy in 2004.Those annual strikes cut deeply into the number of foreign visitors to Indonesia, particularly to the resort island of Bali. It is not yet clear if the latest bombings will take a similar toll on the tourism sector.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...