Material for Bombs Seized in Indonesia

Indonesian police seized a huge cache of ammonium nitrate in Central Sulawesi province Wednesday and said it was destined for a fugitive wanted in the deadly bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant.

Ammonium nitrate is a common fertilizer, but it can be mixed with fuel oil to make a powerful explosive. It was the substance used in the Oct. 12 blasts in Bali that killed more than 190 people, mostly Western tourists.

“If this was used to make a bomb, it would be much larger than the one in Bali,” police Col. Tatang Somantri said.

The 550 pounds of fertilizer were found in a car that police had followed in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, Somantri said.

The driver confessed to smuggling the chemical from neighboring Malaysia for a fugitive identified only as Ipong, a senior police detective said on condition of anonymity.

Ipong, who was not in the car, is wanted in the Dec. 5 bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in Makassar, in southern Sulawesi. Three people were killed in the attack.

Some of the suspects detained for that bombing said they were planning to attack churches on Christmas Eve.

Investigators said the alleged McDonald’s bombers -- who are said to be linked to the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network suspected in the Bali bombings -- planned to buy 50 detonators for the church attacks. Police said they found TNT, sketches of a church and bomb-making books in raids on suspects’ homes.

Somantri said the driver was arrested and officers were searching for the owner of the chemical, who was with the driver but managed to escape. Three different license plates were found inside the car.

Several bombs have exploded over the last year in Palu, about 930 miles northeast of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. Almost 1,000 people have been killed on Sulawesi island in fighting between Muslims and Christians since mid-2000, but large-scale clashes have decreased over the last year.

Ammonium nitrate is widely used by Indonesian farmers, and fishermen also use the substance to make bombs to stun fish. Its sale is restricted, and it is a crime to possess the chemical without a license.

Jemaah Islamiah, linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, is believed to have about 4 tons of the substance.