MARRIOTT BOMBER ARRESTS CONFIRMED

[AussieMark]

Marriott bomber arrests confirmed

INDONESIAN authorities today said they were close to capturing the master bomb makers behind the Bali bombs after the arrest of two suspected militants.

The arrests had also thwarted another attack, police said.

National police chief Dai Bachtiar said officers narrowly missed capturing Malaysian bomb makers Dr Azahari Husin and Noor Din Muhammad Top during a raid on a house in the west Javanese city of Bandung today.

The pair, two of five suspected Jemaah Islamiah militants featured on wanted posters, apparently escaped last night after the arrest of two more junior accomplices in Cirebon earlier yesterday.

But senior counter-terrorism figures said their arrest was imminent, with both unable to speak good Indonesian and having strong accents which would mark them out.

"We believe now our investigation is close to Dr Azahari," the chief of Indonesia's counter-terrorism board Ansyaad Mbai told AAP.

"We expect they will be captured in a short time."

Dr Azahari, a bespectacled British-trained engineer, is suspected of being the master bomb maker who built the Bali bombs, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Along with Noor Din Muhammad Top, he is also suspected of fashioning the car bomb which tore through the JW Marriott Hotel in central Jakarta on August 5, killing 12 people and injuring more than 150.

The Bandung raid, which police said netted five home-made bombs, followed the capture yesterday of two men involved in the Marriott attack.

One of those arrested was a man named Tohir, who allegedly jumped from the van used in the bombing just moments before the blast.

His face was captured by hotel cameras, along with two others, as the Kijang van used in the bombing passed through the hotel gates.

But Tohir and the other still-unidentified man jumped from the vehicle, leaving only the driver, Asmar Latin Sani, to carry out the attack, which police have yet to confirm was a suicide bombing.

Asmar's head was later found on the fifth floor of the hotel.

General Bachtiar said the arrest of Tohir and another JI operative called Ismail in a Cirebon hotel had probably tipped off Dr Azahari.

"Dr Azahari was following them," he said.

"Dr Azahari and Noor Din Muhammad Top were always together with them."

He said the quartet had been planning another bombing, with reports in Indonesia today saying more bombs containing 5kg of TNT were still unaccounted for.

Police said Tohir told them at least one of the fugitives was wearing an explosive-filled waist pack.

"Tohir was one of this group who was going to do another suicide bombing," Bachtiar said.

"They were going to do another terror bomb again with these two. Hopefully it could lessen their intention."

The arrests of Tohir and Ismail bring to 14 the number of people arrested over the Marriott blast, which outraged moderate Indonesians and led to a spate of fresh warnings to travellers to stay away from large Jakarta hotels.

[TexasStooge]

GOOD! Maybe that'll reduce some killings.