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Jakarta hotel florist plotted deadly bombings

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-13 11:59

Policemen guard in front of a heavily damaged house August 9, 2009 following a raid targeting Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top in Temanggung, Central Java. [Agencies]

While investigations into the recent bombings are ongoing and it remains unclear when plotting began, Nanan said that Ibrohim began scouting the targets in April.

At a press conference Wednesday, police showed security camera footage which Nanan said showed Ibrohim smuggling explosives in through a basement cargo dock on July 16, a day before the blasts at the hotels, which are located side-by-side in an upscale district of the capital, also home to foreign embassies.

The grainy images show a man backing up a small pickup truck into the Marriott and Ibrohim unloading three containers that police claim were full of explosives.

"On D-day, Ibrohim had the most important role in the bombing," Nanan said, "He took the bomber ... equipped with the bomb into the Ritz-Carlton Hotel."

Related readings:  Police nab hotel cook for Jakarta attacks  Indonesia: Slain militant not Noordin Top  Terror suspect purportedly claims Jakarta blasts  3rd bomb in Jakarta attack unexploded  Blasts at Jakarta hotels kill 8, wound 50

Other security camera footage was said to show Ibrohim leading the suicide bombers -- one of them an 18-year-old high school graduate and a 28-year old man whose body has yet be claimed by relatives -- through the hotels on July 8, apparently in a rehearsal for the attacks.

Police also showed footage from July 16, with Ibrohim leading one of the bombers to room 1808 of the Marriott, rented two days before the bombings and used as a command center.

Police say the attacks were plotted at two rental houses on the outskirts of Jakarta. Hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives were seized there along with a car rigged with a bomb. Investigators said a third suicide bomber had been recruited to kill President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in an attack that was planned for this week but foiled by the police raids.

At least five suspects in the hotel bombings remain at large, including Noordin, while two others have been shot and killed in police raids.

"The investigation is far from over and there is much left unexplained," said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank. "Developing a better understanding of who brought him (Ibrohim) into the plot and how he was inducted would help crack this case and strengthen future counterterrorism efforts."

Ibrohim had resigned his job on the morning of the bombings, the head of security of the US-owned J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton, Allan Orlob, told AP.

In a letter to his employer, he requested that his last paycheck be used to reimburse several people who loaned him money. His friends were asked in the short, handwritten note that he left at the hotel reception to forgive him.

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