Police discover explosive similar to those used in Bali bombings

An anti-terror unit found a backpack filled with explosives similar to those used in the 2005 triple suicide bombings on the Indonesia resort island Bali that killed 20 people, police said Monday.

Photo: Police discover explosive similar to those used in Bali bombings

Police found the homemade bomb early Sunday in a storage unit in the Central Javanese town of Temanggung following a tip from two militants arrested in a weekend raid on their hideout, said deputy spokesman for the national police Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam.

They "discovered a bomb like those used in the Bali bombings," Alam told reporters.

The pre-dawn raid Saturday in the nearby town of Wonosobo had targeted Southeast Asian terror chief Noordin Top, but police said he escaped before the operation. Two alleged militants were killed in a shootout and two others were arrested.

The men are all alleged members of the al-Qaida linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, attacks in Jakarta in 2003 and 2004 that left at least 21 dead, and the 2005 Bali attacks, reports the AP.

I.L.