T

he National Police confirmed Friday's explosions in two Jakarta hotels were suicide bombs and the methods used bore many similarities to previous Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) attacks.

Police deputy chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Sulistiyo Ishak, however, said Monday that the police had not found a link between the bombers and JI, despite finding bomb materials similar to those found in a JI safe house in Cilacap, Central Java.

"We do not want to jump to any conclusion. The bomb materials have many similarities with the ones in Cilacap, and also the ones used in Bali during both Bali bombings," he said.

"However, we cannot confirm for now whether JI is behind the latest bombings or not."

Suicide bombers attacked the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in South Jakarta's Mega Kuningan district on Friday morning. The blast killed at least nine people and injured more than 50.

Sulistiyo refused to confirm recent media speculation on the identity of one of the bombers, identified only as "N".

Television stations have repeatedly shown a man carrying a backpack on his chest and lugging a suitcase through the lobby of the Marriott Hotel moments before the explosion on Friday.

The man has been identified as Nurdin Aziz, based on the Jakarta ID he held. He checked into room 1808 of the hotel, where the police found an undetonated bomb after the explosion.

Terrorism experts suspect that the bomber identified as Nurdin Aziz is actually Nur Said or Nur Hasbi, a member of JI splinter group led by fugitive Malaysian Noordin M. Top.

Nur Said's parents and brother were reportedly taken early Monday morning to Semarang to undergo DNA testing.

Nur's neighbor, Subawadi, said the neighbors knew Nur had studied at the Al Mu'min Islamic boarding school in Ngruki, Surakarta, an institution notorious for its graduates' involvement in previous suicide bombings.

However, the school's vice dean, Muhammad Sholeh Ibrahim, denied Sunday that Nur had graduated from the school.

"He was never one of our students," he said.

Another police spokesman, Sr. Comr. Ketut Untung Yoga Ana, told The Jakarta Post that detectives were finishing sketches of the bombers.

Ketut declined to say when the police would release the sketches.

Sulistiyo also did not discuss the methods used to bring the bombs into the hotels.

"Speculations about the bombs being assembled from inside the hotels were from the media, not officially from the police," he said.

Media reports have said the bombers stayed for a few days at the Marriott, taking bomb materials into the hotels piece by piece. Once the pieces were inside, the terrorists assembled the bombs in their rooms.

Nur Hasbi blew himself in Marriot's Syailendra restaurant, while the second bomber walked into the nearby Ritz-Carlton using an underground tunnel linking the two hotels, blowing himself up in the Ritz's Airlangga restaurant, Tempointeraktif.com reported.

The bomber managed to access the tunnel without difficulty because security was in disarray moments after the first bomb exploded.

The bombing at the Ritz Carlton killed three people, including the suicide bomber, while the bombing at the Marriot killed six, including the suicide bomber. (bbs/hdt)