Thread: Terror Attacks Rock Jakarta Ritz-Carlton and Marriott

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Car bomb goes off near shops after Jakarta hotel bombings

A car bomb has exploded near a shopping complex in the north of the Indonesian capital, more than two hours after two luxury hotels in the city centre were bombed, police have told local radio.

The hotel blasts killed nine people and injured around 50 this morning, Indonesia's security minister said.

The minister says a New Zealander was among those killed, and 13 other foreigners were among those injured at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels.

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Bombs explode in Jakarta

Powerful bombs have exploded at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The facade of the Ritz-Carlton was blown off in one blast and another explosion hit the Marriott, police said. The explosions rocked the area about 8am local time (11am AEST).

The Sydney Morning Herald's Indonesia correspondent Tom Allard said one bomb was reportedly detonated inside the Ritz-Carlton.

"I'm looking at it now, you can see all the windows punched out on one side,'' Allard told 2UE radio from outside the back of the hotel.

"[I've been told] the bomb actually went off inside the restaurant at the time people were actually sitting there to have their breakfasts."

He said he could see what appeared to be dead bodies being pulled out of the building and badly injured people being helped out as well.

An Australian man called Jim told 2UE his son was injured in the explosion at the Marriott.

The man said his son phoned him from Jakarta, where he was working, and told him he was on his way to hospital.

His left leg was bleeding and he'd lost hearing in one ear but he told his father he was OK, the man said.

Witness reports

A man jogging by the hotels said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz.

Alex Asmasubrata said he saw four bodies inside the Marriott. An Associated Press reporter saw three injured people taken away from the Ritz.

Security guard Eko Susanto told AFP: "I heard two sounds like 'boom, boom' coming from the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. Then I saw people running out."

Witness Intan told TV One one of the explosions wrecked the lobby of the Plaza Mutiara building.

"I was having breakfast on level 16, I heard an explosion and went down to the first floor and it was a mess. I saw foreigners all bloody, about three to five of them, badly wounded," she said.

A witness, who gave her name as Mery, told ElShinta: "I saw some people being carried into a Mercedes. There was a lot of them in there, they were having trouble closing the doors."

Dow Jones Newswires reported witnesses who heard three explosions in the Mega Kuningan business precinct.

"I heard at least three explosions and now white smoke is billowing," a fund manager at a foreign securities company told Dow Jones Newswires on the phone.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected to a second term in the mainly Muslim country last week, was "deeply concerned over this incident," a spokesman for his office said.

JI warning

The bombings come a day after an analyst warned that Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, dormant following an effective police crackdown resulting in the arrest and execution of some members, was on the rise again and set to strike.

The Marriott hotel was attacked in 2003, when 12 died. Jemaah Islamiah was blamed for that blast.

The Department of Foreign Affairs was aware of reports of an explosion and was in contact with the Australian embassy in Jakarta to investigate what happened, a spokeswoman said.

Embassy staff were urgently seeking to identify whether any Australians were injured, the spokeswoman said.

It is five years since the Australian embassy in Jakarta was bombed, killing 10 people and wounding 161 in September 2004


http://www.smh.com.au/world/car-bomb-go ... -dnkd.html

Deadly blasts hit Jakarta hotels

NEW: Death toll rises to eight, a presidential spokesman says

Explosions hit Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels in Jakarta

At the Ritz, second floor windows blown out, as though blast occurred from within

The Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people


JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from bombings at two luxury hotels Friday morning in south Jakarta, Indonesia, has risen to eight, a presidential spokesman said. The number of wounded people was in the 40s, the spokesman said.

Counter-terrorist police commandos secure the damaged Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jakarta on Friday after the blasts.

Antara News, a state-run agency, quoted a witness as saying he saw four foreigners among the wounded.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel was to have accommodated soccer players from Manchester United of Britain, who are expected to arrive Saturday in Jakarta on Saturday.

The victims were taken to nearby MMC Hospital and Jakarta Hospital, the agency reported.

Police sealed off the area around both blasts, one of which occurred in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the other at the J.W. Marriott Hotel, about 50 meters away, about 7:50 a.m. (8:50 p.m. Thursday ET).

"There was a boom and the building shook, and then subsequently two more," said hotel guest Don Hammer, who was leaving his room in the Marriott when the blast occurred.

"The shocking part was entering the lobby, where the glass at the front of the hotel was all blown out and blood was spattered across the floor, but most people were leaving calmly."

Witnesses said they saw at least three people being carried away on stretchers.

Greg Woolstencroft had just walked past the hotels and had gone to his nearby apartment when he heard an explosion.

"I looked out my window and I saw a huge cloud of brownish smoke go up," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "I grabbed my iPhone to go downstairs ... and then the second bomb went off at the Ritz-Carlton, so I then ran around to the Ritz-Carlton and I was able to find that there had been a massive bomb that went off in this ... restaurant area and the explosion had blown out both sides of the hotel.

"I found inside the body of of what appears to be a suicide bomber, it looked like someone who had been a suicide bomber or someone who had been very, very close to the explosion.

"I also noticed that there were a number of injured people being taken off to hospital, but I only noticed one dead person at this point and time, that's all I saw. There has been extensive damage to both buildings, and at this point and time of course all the authorities are blocking up all the area and starting an investigation." Watch an eyewitness report of the blasts »

He added, "It's obviously targeted establishments where there are Westerners and expats ... I can only assume it's something to try and send a message."

At the Ritz, windows were blown out on the second floor, as though the blast occurred from inside a hotel restaurant that would have been crowded with breakfast eaters at the time, Woolstencroft told CNN.

The television executive said he had lived for a year at the Ritz before moving to his nearby apartment and had been impressed by the facility's security.

"I just don't know how someone could get in there with a bomb, given the level of security and screening that people have to go through," he said, citing armed guards at checkpoints and thorough searches of people, bags and vehicles.

The Marriott was the site of a terrorist attack in August 2003 that killed 12 people.

Friday's attack "was not nearly as bad," said John Aglionby, a reporter for the Financial Times who was at the site of both blasts.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html