Indonesia probes email threatening further attacks

Indonesian anti-terror police escort one of two militants believed to be members of Noordin Mohammad Top's network into a vehicle following their arrest last week in Parakan, Central Java, as they await a transfer to Mobile Police Brigade Headquarters in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta August 10, 2009.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police are investigating an email sent to a local website claiming to be from fugitive Islamic militant Noordin Mohammad Top and threatening to carry out more attacks.

Top is the suspected mastermind behind last month's twin suicide bomb attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, killing nine people and injuring 53.

Police initially thought they had killed Top during raids last weekend in Central Java, but forensic tests later identified the body as that of a suspected accomplice.

Police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said on Friday authorities were investigating the email sent to local website Bagustv.com which claimed that the militant had been at the scene of Friday's raid in Temanggung, Central Java, but had escaped.

"I could escape the police siege," the email said. "I will never give up before America and its allies get out of Iraq and other Islamic countries."

An internet posting last month, also purporting to be from Top, claimed responsibility for the Jakarta hotel attacks.

Top, who formed a violent wing of the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, is blamed for a series of attacks, including on the JW Marriott in Jakarta in 2003, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and in Bali in 2005.

Danuri also said police were investigating a possible link between a cache of chemicals found in a warehouse and bombs discovered in Bekasi, near Jakarta, during raids last week.

Police on Wednesday found 12 kg of chemicals including sulfur, acid and potassium in Bogor, south of Jakarta, after a tip-off from local residents.

One of two suspected militants killed in the Bekasi raid, Eko Joko Sarjono, may have delivered the chemicals to the warehouse, Danuri said. Police believe the bombs in Bekasi were to be used in a suicide truck bomb attack on the home of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In a speech ahead of Indonesia's Independence Day on Monday, Yudhoyono said the young should be protected from "deviant thoughts" and the government aimed to fight extremism by overcoming poverty, backwardness and injustice.

(Reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Ed Davies)