Noordin’s target the Red Devils

So here is the villian that has been wrecking havoc in south east asia. MMAIL

Submitted by pekwan on Friday, July 31st, 2009

Blast at Jakarta’s Ritz Carlton took place a day before team’s arrival

Frankie D'Cruz

Friday, July 31st, 2009 04:41:00

TERRORIST Noordin Mat Top targeted Manchester United in the recent twin hotel suicide bombings in Jakarta.

Noordin, a Malaysian, took responsibility for the carnage two weeks ago in an Internet message, the origin of which is being investigated by the police.

The blast at the Ritz Carlton occurred a day before Alex Ferguson and his squad were due to check in ahead of a friendly match during their Asian tour.

It is unknown whether the terrorists knew the team was arriving a day after the blasts.

The exhibition game against an Indonesian All-Star side was called off within hours of the bombing.

The Indonesian players were staying in the nearby J.W. Marriott but had left for practice at a nearby stadium at the time the bomb there went off at 7.47am.

The promoter of the Red Devils' Asian tour, ProEvents, had two options on whether to continue with the match in Jakarta.

One was to fly the squad in, play the match and fly out. The other was to play the match at the Bukit Jalil national stadium in Kuala Lumpur and beam it on big screens at a Jakarta stadium. Neither materialised.

Finally, Manchester United played a second match against Malaysia in KL.

In the posting, Noordin claims to be the "leader of Tandsim Al Qaeda Indonesia" that attacked the Ritz as a warning to Indonesians "against the arrival of the soccer club Manchester United" at the hotel.

The messages justified the attack on July 17, in which seven people died and some 50 wounded, as an attack on American interests and labelled Manchester United as "crusaders".

"These players are Christians, so Muslims should not honour and respect these enemies of Allah. They do not deserve honour and respect from Muslims," it said.

It also referred to the "American chamber of commerce" as a target,  apparently confirming that a breakfast meeting of Western businessmen at the Marriott, hosted by US lobbyist James Castle, was the focus of the attack.

The breakfast meeting suffered heavy fatalities with three Australians and a New Zealander killed in the explosions.

The posting says the bombings were carried out in the name of two slain heroes of Noordin's organisation:
former explosives expert Azahari Husin, killed in a shootout with police in East Java in 2005, and Jabir, a bombmaking student of Azhari who died in a shootout in central Java in 2006.

Identifying itself for the first time as "al-Qa'ida Indonesia", under the auspices of Noordin, the group claims to have engaged in extensive research to identify its targets.

Noordin had previously called his group, which is an offshoot of the radical Jemaah Islamiah movement
founded by preacher Abu Bakar Bashir and the late Abdullah Sungkar, "al-Qa'ida for the Malay archipelago".
This is the first time it has specifically identified itself as an Indonesian branch of Osama bin Laden's terror organisation.

Noordin is accused of planning four previous attacks in Indonesia that killed more than 240 people.

His group claimed responsibility for just one of those strikes - triple suicide bombings in Bali in 2005 - in a similar note.