United States offers to help Bali bombing investigation

BALI, Indonesia (AP) _ Indonesian police raiding a house found a photograph matching a police sketch of a suspect in the Oct. 12 blasts in Bali that killed nearly 200 people. <br><br>Police also said they

Friday, November 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BALI, Indonesia (AP) _ Indonesian police raiding a house found a photograph matching a police sketch of a suspect in the Oct. 12 blasts in Bali that killed nearly 200 people.

Police also said they were closing in on the suspects and were questioning relatives and checking identifications.

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce said from the blast site Friday that the United States would help with the investigation and reconstruction efforts. Boyce said the United States still is assessing the nature of that assistance and how much to spend.

Indonesian police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar told legislators late Thursday that police found a photograph of one of three bombing suspects when they raided the house.

Bachtiar did not say where the raid took place but said police were advancing in their search for the trio, who are believed to have rented the car used in the car bombing.

A police spokesman in East Java, Sad Harunantyo, told the private radio station El-Shinta on Thursday that police were searching for one of the suspects in Malang, East Java.

``We have questioned his relatives,'' Harunantyo said.

Indonesian police released sketches of the three this week and said they identified one of them. Police said there was no evidence yet that the three helped mastermind the attack. Rather, they may have been low-level operatives, police say.

Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Jalil has accused Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network of being involved in the Bali bombings _ the world's deadliest terrorist attack since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The ailing spiritual leader of the Muslim extremist group suspected of masterminding the Bali bombing still refuses to answer investigators' questions. Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is believed to be connected with Jemaah Islamiyah, a group recently placed on the U.N. list of organizations with suspected al-Qaida links.

Boyce said Bali was a reminder that terrorist attacks were possible anywhere.

``What we have seen is that no place is immune from this possibility and that goes for every country in the world,'' he said. ``We together must fight so that it (terrorism) cannot destroy our lives or the open democracy which Indonesians and Americans alike cherish.''

Boyce refused to give any details on the investigation but said it was ``going well.''

Australian police said Friday in Canberra that the bombers used 800 pounds of chlorate, believed to have been obtained inside Indonesia.

The Australian findings contradict those of Indonesians investigating the blasts, who say they found traces of other explosives at the scene that were imported from abroad.