JAKARTA, Sept 30 — Three weeks before their devastating attack on two luxury hotels, two suicide bombers and other militants were filmed lounging in a grass field near their targets, chatting about their mission while snacking on biscuits and apples.
Bombers Dani Dwi Permana and Nana Maulana were also filmed jogging, as well as trying on clothing to wear on July 17 — the day they blew themselves up in Jakarta’s JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels.
The attacks killed seven other people and wounded more than 50, abruptly ending a four-year pause in terrorist attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
The chilling footage, filmed in the last week of June and released yesterday by police, was pulled from a laptop in a backpack found on slain terror leader Noordin Top.
The Malaysian, 41, who headed a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network, was killed two weeks ago during a police raid in Central Java.
“This is our target,” Dani Dwi Permana, an 18-year-old high school graduate, says on the video a short distance from the JW Marriott hotel. “This is a very noble way to destroy the enemies of Islam. This is not suicide.”
He detonated explosives in the hotel killing four Westerners and one Indonesian hotel employee.
Nana Maulana, 28, who blew up the Ritz-Carlton hotel’s main breakfast area, was seen on film wearing a baseball cap and eating a shrimp cracker as the men sat cross-legged in a grass field in downtown Jakarta.
Hotel florist Ibrohim, who police say helped stage the attack from the inside, was also filmed snacking on the grass.
The man filming them is believed to be Syaifudin Zuhri, a cleric who allegedly recruited the bombers and is still at large.
“This (bombing) is the obligation God has ordered us to carry out. (We must see) America destroyed, Australia destroyed, Indonesia destroyed,” says a voice off camera, likely to be Syaifudin’s.
A letter recovered from Noordin’s laptop, believed to have been written to Syaifudin’s family, says he joined an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group called Salafi Jihad during studies in Yemen. He has held a prominent position in Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad — a group that was headed by Noordin — since 2005, according to the typed note.
National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told journalists the display was meant to show how bombers prepared for the attacks. The video clips are also meant for “internal propaganda and to attract funding,” Detective Tito Karnavian, a member of the anti-terror taskforce, said at the same briefing.
Asked if international terrorist network Al-Qaeda had helped fund the July17 attacks, Tito said: “We don’t know yet, but there were funds coming from private parties in Saudi Arabia.”
While police try to unearth more information from Noordin’s laptop, several conclusions can be drawn so far.
The network that Noordin built is still a potent threat despite his death because it has the capability to build new cells.
The militants had also clearly changed their strategy, said Tito Karnavian.
They used to focus on Western targets such as the United States and Australia, but are now targeting the Indonesian government which they view is promoting Western values such as democracy, he said. — The Straits Times
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
