POLICE YET TO ESTABLISH BOMBERS' IDENTITIES

Jakarta, July 21 (ANTARA) - The National Police (Polri) investigation team has yet to establish the identities of the suspects in last Friday's bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in the Mega-Kuningan area, a spokesman said.

The assumption that fugitive Malaysian-born extremist Nurdin M Top was involved in the deadly bombings also had yet to be confirmed, Jakarta Police's public relation officer Senior Commissioner Chryshnanda Dwi Laksono said here on Tuesday.

He said the police investigation team was still collecting a number of data or evidence related to Friday's bomb attacks on the two hotels in south Jakarta.

According to Laksono, more evidence was still needed by the police to support the investigation into the bombings that had claimed nine lives and wounded more than 50 people.

Laksono said an identification team was until now still at the blast site to collect evidence and try to match it with the real conditions in the field.

The police had earlier confirmed that the explosions in the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels were the work of suicide bombers who had gained entry into the hotels by posing as guests.

Meanwhile, deputy head of the National Police Headquarters' public relations division, Brigadier General Sulistyo Ishak, told newsmen on Monday that police had so far questioned 15 people as witnesses in the bombings and put them under police protection.

The police would be careful in informing the public about their findings because "our actions are always being watched by many quarters," he said.

Sulistyo admitted that the bombs used in the attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels were similar to those used in the Bali bombings a few years ago and to those found in Cilacap recently in terms of their materials and detonating technology.

"However, this is still an assumption. We are continuing to monitoring other terror groups," he said, denying that the initial of one of the bombers' name was "N".

"We have never said that. What we said was we suspect it is 'N'," he said.

Sulistyo on the occasion also clarified photos and video footages put up in the mass media so far. "The photos and video footages in circulation, I believe, did not come from the police. We have so far only conveyed information which was based on facts," he said.

Until now the police have not told about the identities of the bombers nor their modus operandi. Also, the police have never said that the bombers were among the four dead victims that were now still being identified.