DNA tests fail to match suspected bombers in Jakarta

JAKARTA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian police on Wednesday said that the DNA tests had failed to match the blood samples taken from family of suspected suicide bombers with the remains in the scene of bombings in two hotels in Jakarta last Friday.

The blood samples did not match with the samples of family of Nurhasbi alias Nursaid, the suspected bombers at JW Marriot Hotel and Ibrahim, the suspect at Ritz Carlton Hotel, National Police Spokesman Nanan Soekarna said.

Earlier television footages identified Nurhasbi and Ibrahim as perpetrators of the suicide bombings.

In addition to, the spokesman said that the perpetrator JW Marriot Hotel explosion aged from 16 to 17 years, which was different from the age Nurhasbi of 35 years, and the age of the bomber in another hotel was about 40 years, different from Ibrahim of 36 years.

But the police said that the two head founds in the two scene of blasts were belonging to the suicide bombers.

"It is strongly suspected that the suicide bombers with his head (found In JW Marriot Hotel) is the man who occupies the room 1808 (of the hotel)," Soekarna said.

"While the head found in Ritz Carlton Hotel, based on the information from witnesses and the position of the bomb was put in, he is the suicide bomber," he said.

The blasts in two luxurious hotels JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton in Jakarta's main business district that killed nine people and injured 53, including foreigners and Indonesians, occurred after four-years absence of major terrorist acts in the country.

The regional militant network of Jemaah Islamiyah might be the main suspect on the bombings at the two hotels as the police have found similarities in equipment and method of the bombs with those detonated in Bali in 2002 and 2005, and that found in recent raid in Cilacap of Central Java, in which the group was implicated.

The National Police spokesman Sulistyo Ishak said that the bombers put bolts and used black powders.

Indonesia had been attacked by a series of terrorist attacks from 2000 up to 2005, including Bali bombings, the JW Marriot explosion and the Australian embassy bombings in Jakarta that killed more than 250 people.

The police and analysts said that the bombings in the two hotels was masterminded by a breakaway of Jemaah Islamiyah led by Malaysian fugitive Noordin Moh Top, who had organized the major bombings in Indonesia, targeting foreigners and facilities.