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CNN Live At Daybreak

Car Bomb Explodes in Indonesia

Aired August 05, 2003 - 05:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more about that breaking news out of Indonesia now. There was a car bomb that exploded a little more than three hours ago. It happened right outside of an American owned Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. It came around lunchtime Indonesia time and this hotel is very popular with Westerners. We know there are 10 deaths, many more injured.
Let's get Maria Ressa back live on the phone -- Maria, are you there?

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, Carol. I'm with you.

I'm standing outside the J.W. Marriott Hotel. The damage is quite extensive. The explosion was so large and so loud that it shattered most of the glass in the front of the building. The side of the building is bare of all glass. You can see it's the concrete columns. Most of the casualties and the injuries occurred on the ground, happened on the ground floor, two restaurants and the lobbies. Again, those are just barely steel columns left there now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, this was a single car or was it more than one? Early reports are saying it was some kind of Toyota car laden with explosives.

RESSA: That's exactly -- that's all the details that we have now, a Toyota car that's a popular taxi name, Bluebird and Silverbird. There was a taxi stand right outside near the front of the hotel. It's near the restaurants on the side, which were packed full for lunch. The hotel has three quarters occupancy. Again, it is Jakarta's newest hotel, a favorite for a lot of the expatriate and diplomatic communities, partly because it was considered among the safest in terms of security.

COSTELLO: And I know that many Westerners stayed there and I know that there are some embassy offices connected to this hotel. Of course, we in America are concerned about any American deaths. Any new information?

RESSA: It's too confused at the site right now. What they're doing is they tried to evacuate the people who were injured and then now they're just evacuating the building. In terms of doing body counts of the casualties, all of that is happening now within the nearby hospitals. It's unclear who was in at this point in time. Officials with the hotel don't want to talk about it. Even the employees now are being evacuated through the back entrance.

They have said that there are foreigners that were there and we just have to wait and see exactly who they were.

COSTELLO: Now, we do know that a terrorist group, Jamia Islamia, is linked to al Qaeda and has been at work in Indonesia. It's quite possible that this terrorist group is connected to this attack.

RESSA: Well, certainly less than two weeks ago the Indonesian government arrested nine more members of Jamia Islamia and also recovered a substantial weapons and an ammunition and explosives cache. That spurred an announcement from the government basically warning of future attacks.

The idea, of course, had been that after the arrests of many of the Bali bombers, the Bali explosion in October 10, October 12, 2002, was the largest after 9/11, the deadliest in terms of number of people killed. More than 200 people, mostly tourists and foreigners, had been killed at that explosion.

Here, the idea was that after the bombers had been rounded up from that that the threat was over. Well, less than a month ago the Indonesian government and authorities in Southeast Asia warned that Jamia Islamia retains operational capabilities to carry out future attacks on the scale of Bali or even larger.

COSTELLO: Yes, and it's also a couple of days before one of those Bali bombers is handed down his sentence and some suspect that may be another reason that this happened.

I want to talk about security around the hotel right now. This is an American hotel, Marriott. I mean how much more of an American named hotel can you get? Tell us about the security around this hotel and if it was tight or not.

RESSA: Well, before the explosion, again, this was considered to have one of the best security in Jakarta, part of the reason the U.S. Embassy used it frequently. Many of its events and functions are here, including the last Fourth of July.

Now, post the explosions, police have tried to cordon off the four -- there is four different ways of getting into this area. They've tried to keep people away from that. But, again, the helicopters are coming in and out of the area just try to get the injured out as well as getting forensics and medical teams in -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Maria Ressa reporting live from Jakarta this morning.

We're going to get back to you, but we know at least 10 are dead. Don't know if any of the 10 are American. And we do know that about 75 people are injured.

We'll get back live to Indonesia as Maria gathers more new information for us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Aired August 5, 2003 - 05:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more about that breaking news out of Indonesia now. There was a car bomb that exploded a little more than three hours ago. It happened right outside of an American owned Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. It came around lunchtime Indonesia time and this hotel is very popular with Westerners. We know there are 10 deaths, many more injured.
Let's get Maria Ressa back live on the phone -- Maria, are you there?

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am, Carol. I'm with you.

I'm standing outside the J.W. Marriott Hotel. The damage is quite extensive. The explosion was so large and so loud that it shattered most of the glass in the front of the building. The side of the building is bare of all glass. You can see it's the concrete columns. Most of the casualties and the injuries occurred on the ground, happened on the ground floor, two restaurants and the lobbies. Again, those are just barely steel columns left there now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, this was a single car or was it more than one? Early reports are saying it was some kind of Toyota car laden with explosives.

RESSA: That's exactly -- that's all the details that we have now, a Toyota car that's a popular taxi name, Bluebird and Silverbird. There was a taxi stand right outside near the front of the hotel. It's near the restaurants on the side, which were packed full for lunch. The hotel has three quarters occupancy. Again, it is Jakarta's newest hotel, a favorite for a lot of the expatriate and diplomatic communities, partly because it was considered among the safest in terms of security.

COSTELLO: And I know that many Westerners stayed there and I know that there are some embassy offices connected to this hotel. Of course, we in America are concerned about any American deaths. Any new information?

RESSA: It's too confused at the site right now. What they're doing is they tried to evacuate the people who were injured and then now they're just evacuating the building. In terms of doing body counts of the casualties, all of that is happening now within the nearby hospitals. It's unclear who was in at this point in time. Officials with the hotel don't want to talk about it. Even the employees now are being evacuated through the back entrance.

They have said that there are foreigners that were there and we just have to wait and see exactly who they were.

COSTELLO: Now, we do know that a terrorist group, Jamia Islamia, is linked to al Qaeda and has been at work in Indonesia. It's quite possible that this terrorist group is connected to this attack.

RESSA: Well, certainly less than two weeks ago the Indonesian government arrested nine more members of Jamia Islamia and also recovered a substantial weapons and an ammunition and explosives cache. That spurred an announcement from the government basically warning of future attacks.

The idea, of course, had been that after the arrests of many of the Bali bombers, the Bali explosion in October 10, October 12, 2002, was the largest after 9/11, the deadliest in terms of number of people killed. More than 200 people, mostly tourists and foreigners, had been killed at that explosion.

Here, the idea was that after the bombers had been rounded up from that that the threat was over. Well, less than a month ago the Indonesian government and authorities in Southeast Asia warned that Jamia Islamia retains operational capabilities to carry out future attacks on the scale of Bali or even larger.

COSTELLO: Yes, and it's also a couple of days before one of those Bali bombers is handed down his sentence and some suspect that may be another reason that this happened.

I want to talk about security around the hotel right now. This is an American hotel, Marriott. I mean how much more of an American named hotel can you get? Tell us about the security around this hotel and if it was tight or not.

RESSA: Well, before the explosion, again, this was considered to have one of the best security in Jakarta, part of the reason the U.S. Embassy used it frequently. Many of its events and functions are here, including the last Fourth of July.

Now, post the explosions, police have tried to cordon off the four -- there is four different ways of getting into this area. They've tried to keep people away from that. But, again, the helicopters are coming in and out of the area just try to get the injured out as well as getting forensics and medical teams in -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Maria Ressa reporting live from Jakarta this morning.

We're going to get back to you, but we know at least 10 are dead. Don't know if any of the 10 are American. And we do know that about 75 people are injured.

We'll get back live to Indonesia as Maria gathers more new information for us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com