Explosion at Islamic school in Indonesia kills 1

[July 12, 2011]  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A man reportedly trying to show students how to make explosives was killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia, police said Tuesday.

School officials and students have prevented police from entering the building since Monday's explosion, local police spokesman Lt. Col. Sukarman Husen said.

But they discovered the body of the suspected bomb maker, a 30-year-old man identified only as Firdaus, on a bus Tuesday as it tried to leave the school compound, he said.

Eleven people have been taken in for questioning, Husen said, adding that police also confiscated a number of arrows and machetes.

Husen said the bombing victim was a treasurer at the school, but media reports alleged he was a former bomb trainee in the Philippine region of Mindanao. According to TVOne, he was killed in an unintentional explosion while training students about bomb-making.

Police are still persuading the school officials to let them enter the compound, Husen said.

National Police Spokesman Maj. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said the explosion was suspected to be from a homemade bomb being prepared to attack the police.

"Therefore they don't allow police to enter the boarding school," Alam told reporters in the capital, Jakarta. He added that two platoons, including soldiers, were around the complex.

The school on Sumbawa Island in central Indonesia came to police attention late last month, when a 16-year-old student was arrested for allegedly stabbing to death an officer. Police believe he belonged to an Islamic militant group, and they said he told his interrogators that police deserved to die for hunting down jihadists.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been battling terrorists since 2002 when al-Qaida-linked militants attacked two nightclubs on Bali island, killing 202 people, mostly foreigners.

In recent months, security forces have become the main target of extremists in Indonesia. Militants say they want to punish soldiers and police for taking part in the so-called war against terrorism.

Hundreds of Islamic militants have been arrested, tried and jailed.

[Associated Press; By ALI KOTARUMALOS]

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