The bomb was discovered during a police raid on the house of an Islamic militant. There are investigations into possible recruitment of suicide bombers and into plans for more massive attacks.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) Indonesian police have found a bomb of the same destructive power as those that went off in Bali in 2005. The discovery has fuelled fears of more large attacks in the country. The bomb was found in a house rented by an Islamic militant linked to the 2004 attack against the Indonesian embassy in Jakarta.
The man involved, Jabir, was one of two terrorists killed during a police raid in East Java, which the top fugitive Noordin Moh Top managed to evade on 29 April. Top is held to be among the leadership of the Jemaah Islamiah terror network, probably close to Al-Qaeda. Police seized the bomb during an operation carried out yesterday in Temanggung (East Java). At a press conference, the deputy spokesman of the police, Anton Bachrul Alam, said "possible targets of the bomb are being investigated".
"The home-made bomb found is a very powerful weapon. Its destruction capacity is more or less the same as the one used in Bali last year," he said. The attacks on 1 October 2005 in the localities of Jimbaran and Kuta killed 22 people.
Investigations are also under way to seek to discover whether the terrorists had already recruited suicide bombers for their next attack. "In the house, we found two pistols, portable computers, nine cell phones and detonators, as well as a video explaining how to make a bomb," added the police spokesman.
Meanwhile, no information was given about the track followed by police in their search for Noordin Moh Top.