Australian Embassy bombing, Jakarta
On 9 September 2004, a suicide bomber set off a one-tonne bomb hidden in a truck outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. The Australian Federal Police say it was "the first deadly attack on an Australian diplomatic mission". The AFP says 10 people were killed on the day and more than 200 were injured, and that "all 10 victims were Indonesian citizens, including locally contracted staff who worked at the Embassy". Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in 2024 that the dead included 3 locally contracted staff of the mission.
Australia's response: under Operation Bantu, Australian investigators, forensic, technical and intelligence specialists supported the Indonesian National Police. The AFP says plastic pellets from the bomb's boxes helped link the attack to Jemaah Islamiyah members Noordin Mohammad Top and Azahari Husin. Both were later killed when Indonesian police tried to arrest them.
The attack came during Australia's federal election campaign, ahead of the 9 October 2004 poll. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said: "You would have to conclude that it was directed towards Australia". Prime Minister John Howard said: "This is not a nation that is going to be intimidated by acts of terrorism." The Guardian reported that the injured included Australian nationals and that Australia advised citizens to defer non-essential travel to Indonesia.
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