Investigations Begin in Bali Bomb Blast

Investigations have begun into the bomb blast which tore through a night club on the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday, killing 187 and injuring 309.

As tourists hurry to leave the island, western intelligence experts are taking their place in an area which only two days ago was full of hundreds of partying youngsters, but today resembles a picture of death and destruction.

In an effort to find the culprits responsible for the attack, both American and European counter-terrorism experts have been dispatched to the Indonesian island.

Suspicions are focusing on extremist groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, which has been campaigning for a pan-Islamic state in the region, stretching from Southeast Asia to the southern Philippines, and Osma Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network is known to have links to Indonesia. On Monday, a senior U.S. official said Al Qaeda had long been present in the most populous Muslim country in the region. "They've been in Indonesia… They're all running from Afghanistan. They've got to go someplace," the official was quoted saying to Reuters.

"There's a good number of reasons that you have to say it might be them," he said, but added that there was no information which confirmed the group's involvement in the blasts.

An unlikely target for Al Qaeda?

Al Qaeda is suspected of attacking U.S. marines in Kuwait several days ago and has also been linked to a blast which gutted a French tanker in Yemen last week.

However, a nightclub is regarded as an unlikely target by experts, saying it does not have a strategic value, and is not a favorite haunt of Al Qaeda's preferred targets, U.S. civilians and Jews.

According to the BBC, one possible explanation for the attack comes from a Saudi source which claims that many Indonesians still blame Australian troops for the loss of their former territory. He said these Indonesian nationalists were bent on revenge and that Bali, which is a popular holiday resort with young Australians, was an obvious target, as it would cause high casualties among vacationers from this country.

But according to Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Christine Gallus, it is not possible to say for sure whether those behind the attacks had deliberately targeted Australian civilians.

Speaking to the BBC, she said a significant number of Australians had died in the blast, but also that a large number of Balinese had been killed, and that Europeans, Americans and Singaporeans were among the dead.

"Barbaric mass murder"

Leaders across the world have condemned the attack.

U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan expressed "shock" and "horror," saying it "underscored the importance of cooperation by all states....to defend human rights, freedom and the rule of law." U.S. President Bush urged the world to confront the "global menace," of terrorism, and called the attack a "cowardly act." Australian Prime Minister John Howard described the act as "barbaric mass murder."

The German government has expressed its "anger and shock" over the terrorist attack. According to a spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry, at least seven German nationals were injured in the explosion. Speaking on Sunday, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said it could not be entirely ruled out that German vacations were among the victims.