ASSOCIATED PRESS, Fri Mar 2, 2007 11:31 PM ET
Bomb blast at Indonesian port wounds 12
[PHOTO: An injured man receives treatment at a hospital after a small homemade
bomb exploded on Ambon island]
AMBON, Indonesia - A bomb packed with nails exploded at a port in the eastern
Indonesian city of Ambon on Saturday, wounding 12 people in a region that has seen
deadly Muslim-Christian violence in the past, police said.
The blast in the seaside city on Maluku island shattered months of relative calm
there, but follows raids last month by police on neighboring Sulawesi island that killed
14 alleged Islamic militants.
The explosion rocked the port as passengers disembarked from a ship, sending nails
and other shrapnel into a crowd of motorbike taxi drivers waiting to collect customers,
said Ambon police chief Lt. Col. Trilulus Rahardjo.
Rahardjo said two of the 12 wounded were seriously injured, but gave no more details.
He said the presence of shrapnel confirmed the blast came from a bomb, but
investigators were still unsure whether the device was hurled into the crowd or
concealed and left on the ground.
Local residents said the explosion was heard more than a mile away.
Muslims and Christians fought bloody battles in the Malukus between 1999 and 2001
that left around 9,000 people dead. The area — known as the Spice Islands in colonial
times — has been largely peaceful since 2001.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.
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