Suicide bombing at Indonesian church injures 22
SOLO, Indonesia (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up inside an
Indonesian church as hundreds of worshippers were filing out after the
Sunday service, injuring at least 22 people, police said.
The
bomber's mangled body lay at the entrance of the Tenth Bethel Gospel
Church. Around him, screaming people were splattered in blood.
Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said the low-intensity device appeared to be attached to the man's stomach.
"We are now waiting for DNA test results to confirm his identity," Pradopo said. "We hope to reveal it soon."
A
woman working at an Internet cafe near the church in the Central Java
town of Solo said the man had visited her shop an hour before the
explosion and browsed websites about al-Qaida and a local Islamist
group.
He left a bag behind containing a copy of the Quran, a mask
and a cellphone charger, Rina Ristriningsih told The Associated Press.
She said all of the items had been confiscated by police.
Indonesia,
a predominantly Muslim nation of 237 million, has been hit by a string
of suicide bombings blamed on the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah
Islamiyah and its offshoots since 2002, when a strike on two Bali
nightclubs killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
Subsequent
attacks targeting restaurants and hotels have been far less deadly,
however, and the last occurred more than two years ago, thanks in large
to a security crackdown that led to the arrests and convictions of
dozens of suspects.
But bombings by solo "jihadis" targeting
Christians, security officers and Islamic sects deemed blasphemous by
hard-liners have continued.
Djoko Suyanto, a top security
minister, told reporters that Sunday's attack should serve as a reminder
that prospective suicide bombers, some without clear motives, are still
out there.
It appeared that the bomber entered the church through
a side door, mingled with worshippers, and then, when the service was
over, headed out with them.
He detonated his device near the entrance, killing himself and wounding at least 22 people, said Pradopo, the police chief.
"Everyone was screaming," Fani, a witness, told Metro TV. Like many Indonesians she goes by only one name.
"I
saw fiery sparks and, near the entrance, a man dead on the ground, his
entrails spilling out. People around him were splattered with blood."
Members of the congregation said they did not recognize the bomber.
"He
walked about 4 meters (yards) behind me," Abraham, who attended the
service, told El Shinta radio. "I believe he was disguised as a
churchgoer."
Indonesia is a secular nation with a long history of
religious tolerance, but a small extremist fringe has become more vocal —
and violent — in recent years.
Critics say President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, who relies heavily on Islamic parties in parliament,
has remained largely silent as minorities have been attacked by
hard-liners or seen their houses of worship torched or closed.
However, he was quick to speak out after Sunday's attack.
"Whoever
is behind such violence has to be arrested," he said, adding that
neither religious nor ethnic differences can justify such actions.
"Crime is crime, terrorism is terrorism."
Yudhoyono said there
were indications the assailant may have been linked to a terror network
in the West Java town of Cirebon that carried out a suicide attack on a
mosque packed with police in April.
Thirty people were injured in that attack.
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