An Indonesian anti-terror unit found a backpack filled with explosives similar to those used in last year’s Bali bombings that killed 20 people, police said Monday, raising concerns that al-Qaida linked militants were planning more strikes.
The homemade device was discovered in a storage unit in the Central Java town of Temanggung early Sunday, following a tip from militants arrested in a raid on the hide-out of Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect Noordin Top, said police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam.
“They found a bomb, like those used in the Bali blasts,” he told reporters, refusing to provide any more details.
The discovery raised worries that Noordin’s regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to be fighting for an Islamic state across the region, may be plotting more strikes in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
The group is blamed for several bombings in recent years, including the Oct. 1, 2005 suicide bombings on three crowded Bali restaurants that killed 20 and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people.
After months of surveillance, police launched a pre-dawn raid Saturday on Noordin’s suspected hide-out in Wonosobo, about 20 miles from Temanggung, but he escaped, police said. Two other Islamic militants, however, were killed in an hour-long firefight and two others were arrested.