Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group being blamed for bomb attacks at Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels in Indonesian capital

At least eight people have been killed and 50 injured in two separate bomb attacks at western-owned hotels in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

No group has claimed responsibility but the bombings, which appear to have been carried out by suicide attackers, are being blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group suspected of carrying out similar attacks in south-east Asia.

The blasts occurred virtually simultaneously at the JW Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in central Jakarta at about 8am local time. Several of the bombing suspects were believed to have been staying at the Marriott.

A New Zealander who died was identified by his employer as Timothy David Mackay, 62. He worked for the cement products manufacturer PT Holcim Indonesia and was reportedly attending a business meeting at the Marriott when the explosions occurred. Seventeen other foreigners were among the wounded.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the attack was carried out by a “terrorist group” and vowed to track down the bombers.

“Those who carried out this attack and those who planned it will be arrested and tried according to the law,” Yudhoyono told a news conference.

A third bomb exploded in a car along a toll road in north Jakarta, where it is thought two people were killed.

JI was suspected of attacking the same Marriott hotel in 2003, when a car bomb killed 12 people, but Yudhoyono said it was too early to say if they were was responsible for today’s attacks.

The south Jakarta police chief, Firman Santyabudi, confirmed that the explosions had occurred at the luxury hotels in the upmarket district of Kuningan, an area popular with foreigners and host to many bars, offices and embassies.

“There were explosions heard from two separate places, one the JW Marriott, the other in the Ritz-Carlton. We are still trying to check because right now we are still helping the victims,” Santyabudi said.

Theo Sambuaga, chairman of the parliamentary security commission, said there were “indications of suicide bombs” at both hotels.

The Manchester United football team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz tomorrow and Sunday for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars. In the wake of the attacks, United cancelled the game and its flight to Jakarta.

The bombings came two weeks after a presidential vote which is expected to result in the re-election of Yudhoyono, who has been credited with tackling militancy in Indonesia.

The bombs were planted in the Ritz-Carlton’s Air Langga restaurant and the basement of the Marriott, according to police intelligence reports.

Jakarta police chief Major General Wahyono said the suspects of the Marriott bombing were staying on the 18th floor of the hotel, where un-detonated explosives were found after today’s twin explosions.

“There were several perpetrators,” he told reporters. “They were disguised as guests and stayed in room 1808.”

An employee of the Marriott, named only as Yanuar, told Reuters: “I fell because of an explosion, I did not know where it came from, but after I saw clearly it came from the left side of the JW Marriott Hotel.”

“There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,” said a man who lives near the hotels and who arrived at the Marriott before emergency services. “It was terrible.”

There have not been any major bomb blasts in Indonesia for four years, and the presidential election passed off peacefully. A terrorism analyst, Rohan Gunaratna, said: “The only group with the intention and capability to mount attacks upon western targets is Jemaah Islamiyah. I have no doubt Jemaah Islamiyah was responsible for this attack.”

Police have detained most of the key figures in the group, and rounded up hundreds of other sympathisers and lesser figures. But Gunaratna said radical ideologues sympathetic to the network were still able to preach extremism in Indonesia, helping provide an infrastructure that could support terrorism.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, condemned the bombings as reflecting “the viciousness of violent extremists” and said they “remind us that the threat of terrorism remains very real”.

Sidney Jones, a Jakarta-based expert on Islamic militants for the International Crisis Group, said: “It’s more likely to be a splinter group than JI itself, which doesn’t mean you couldn’t have JI members but it’s very unlikely to be JI as an organisation behind this attack.”