Police and security analysts in Indonesia have warned that terrorists are planning more attacks in the country. The news media have released a list of potential targets that includes international schools, offices and shopping areas.
Indonesia's police chief warned Thursday that two suspected terrorists were planning an attack to coincide with the six-month anniversary of the August 5 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
General Dai Bachtiar said that two of the main planners behind the Marriott explosion, bomb maker Azahari Husin and terrorist financier Nurdin Mohammed Top, are planning new attacks on February 5. Indonesian police are hunting both men.
Although General Bachtiar says specific targets are not known, his warning coincides with the publication of a list of purported terror targets in and around Jakarta. The list includes the Jakarta International School, the Australian International School, branches of the U.S.-owned Citigroup and a number of shopping outlets frequented by the city's expatriate community.
The list of targets, which includes nine specific locations and expatriate residences, was reportedly found earlier this month when police raided a house believed to have been used by two terror suspects. Lists of purported terror targets have been published before, but some security analysts are giving more credence to this latest compilation because of where it was found.
Martin Hughes is the Indonesia manager for the international security-consulting firm Control Risks. The firm has not raised its alert level on Indonesia but he recommends that residents use caution. "We are advising our clients to maintain situational awareness, to if possible review some of their social habits, to look at the information that is being released in balance and also to dust off any of their contingency plans or to develop contingency plans if they don't have them in place," says Mr. Hughes.
Indonesia has seen the worst terror attacks in East Asia. The regional terror group known as Jemaah Islamiyah, or JI, is believed to have been behind both the Marriott bombing, which killed 12 people, and last year's Bali bombing, in which more than 200 people died.
Many security experts think JI is planning more attacks. However, most of the targets named Thursday have been on high alert for months, and there is unlikely to be any panic in a country where the continuing terrorist threat has become a part of life.
