Blast Injures 2 at Indonesian Mall; Group Is Blacklisted

An explosive device blew up at a shopping mall and injured two people Thursday, worsening jitters in Indonesia, while the world moved to isolate a Southeast Asian terrorist group allegedly linked to Al Qaeda that is suspected in a deadly bombing in Bali.

Australia said 47 nations back its campaign to get the United Nations Security Council to declare Jemaah Islamiah a terrorist organization, and Britain banned the group and ordered its bank accounts frozen.

The U.S. State Department added Jemaah Islamiah to its list of terrorist groups Wednesday, thus freezing its assets, making it a crime to contribute funds to the organization and barring its members from traveling to the United States.

The actions showed that the international community has put Jemaah Islamiah in its sights since the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, which killed more than 180 people and injured hundreds, most of them foreigners.

There was no claim of responsibility for Thursday’s explosion at the shopping mall in Bandung, 75 miles southeast of Jakarta, the capital, but police described the device -- and two others defused at another mall -- as being like large firecrackers. Wrapped like a gift, the device blew up as a janitor tried to move it from a cleaning cart. Two people suffered slight injuries.

The devices appeared intended to frighten, police said.

Earlier, Indonesia vowed to support efforts at the U.N. to list Jemaah Islamiah as a terrorist organization, but backers of its alleged leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, dismissed accusations against the group as lies.