Indonesian militant badly injured when bicycle bomb prematurely detonates

Indonesian militant hurt by bicycle bomb blast

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Islamic militant was critically injured when a homemade bomb strapped to the back of his bicycle detonated prematurely Thursday before he reached his apparent target — a police post outside Indonesia’s capital.

No one else was hurt.

Police spokesman Col. Boy Rafli Amar said a letter found in the 38-year-old man’s back pocket said he was seeking “revenge for the infidels who killed Islamic fighters.”

“We will hunt you even if you run into the clouds,” the note, written on two pages, said. “Your death is certain.”

The low-explosive device, packed with ball bearings and nails to maximize the impact of the blast, apparently went off accidentally when the suspect was 100 yards (meters) from the police post in Jakarta’s industrial suburb of Bekasi.

Indonesia, a secular nation with more Muslims than any other in the world, has been battling terrorists since 2002, when militants linked to the Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiyah started attacking Western nightclubs, restaurants and embassies.

More than 260 people have been killed, many of them foreign tourists.

A new homegrown terror cell discovered in Aceh province in February, however, has shifted tactics, targeting the country’s moderate leaders and its security forces for joining a U.S.-backed crackdown on militants.

Scores of suspects have been arrested since then and more than a dozen killed.

“This is revenge against you, the devil’s allies, who kill, sentence to death, and arrest the Muslim fighters,” said the note carried by the man, who suffered wounds to the face and neck.

“We are ready to die for this noble religion.”

Last week, heavily armed Islamist militants stormed a police precinct on Sumatra island, fatally shooting three officers.