Plan to bomb Indonesian President foiled

Two would-be suicide bombers who were planning a truck-bomb attack on a house belonging to the Indonesian president were killed during a police raid early today, police said.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the men were shot dead as they were about to detonate pipe-bombs during the raid, which uncovered a vast cache of explosive material and a small truck rigged to explode. He said the house in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, was being used as a base by a “cell of NMT,” referring to alleged terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top, who is wanted for multiple bombings in Indonesia.

An accomplice of the men had told police they were planning to detonate the truck-bomb at the house in about two weeks’ time, which would roughly coincide with the August 17 anniversary of Indonesian independence. Their rented house was about a 12-minute drive away from a residential property belonging to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Danuri said.

Danuri said the Bekasi raid was linked to a police assault on a suspected Noordin hideout in Central Java, also on Saturday. Police have not confirmed local media reports that Noordin was killed in that operation, saying they have to wait for DNA tests on the body of a man killed at the remote farm-house. Noordin is suspected of masterminding the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta as well as suicide blasts at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003, Bali tourist restaurants in 2005 and the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17.