Police Arrest Two Over Bali Bombings

Indonesian police have arrested two men in connection with last month's bombings in Bali that killed almost 200 people, the country's police chief told legislators yesterday.

General Da'i Bachtiar said one man, whom he declined to identify, was arrested in Jakarta yesterday while the second, named as Zulfan, 27, was held in the north Sumatran city of Medan on Monday.

"They resembled the sketches and one of them has a criminal record," he said at a meeting in parliament, referring to composite drawings of three men the joint Indonesian-Australian investigation team released last week.

Detectives in Medan said Mr Zulfan was arrested at the city's immigration office while trying to use a fake identity card to obtain a new passport. Officers also confiscated a return ticket from Medan to Penang, Malaysia.

Investigators say the men in the sketches are believed to be junior operatives in a gang of six to 10 people and probably linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, the south-east Asian Islamist group that is considered to be al-Qaida's regional outfit.

Police have detained Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Ba'aysir, in connection with the bombing of churches on Christmas Eve 2000 and a plot to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri. However he is refusing to answer questions until he is freed, and his lawyers have sued for wrongful arrest.