Fugitive terrorist a suspect in hotel bombings

? The mangled faces of two suspected suicide attackers may be the main clue linking the bombings of two luxury American hotels in the Indonesian capital with a notorious al-Qaida-linked militant network that has struck many times before.

Investigators worked with medical teams Saturday to reconstruct the remains of the culprits believed to have set off explosions that tore through the restaurants of the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton at breakfast time the day before. Seven were killed, plus the two suspected attackers, and 50 wounded, many of them foreigners.

The method, target and type of bombs used in Friday’s attacks immediately raised suspicions of involvement by the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group and Noordin M. Top, the fugitive Malaysian national who heads a particularly violent offshoot of the network.

While National Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said they “cannot say for sure whether Noordin M. Top led this bombing,” others were more certain.

“I’m 200 percent sure this was his work,” said Nasir Abbas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah leader turned police informant who has worked with police on investigations into Indonesia’s last three terrorist attacks.

A police investigator told The Associated Press on Saturday that Noordin was the most likely suspect.

“Considering the target, the location and content of the bombs, it was clearly the work of Noordin,” the investigator said, declining to give his name because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

The investigator said a hotel receptionist told police that one of the suspected bombers who checked into the hotel days before gave his name as “Nurdin.” He gave a $1,000 cash deposit because he had no credit card, he said.

Noordin, an engineer and alleged bomb-maker, is accused of masterminding four major strikes in Indonesia with the help of al-Qaida that killed more than 240 people, including the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, a strike on the J.W. Marriott in 2003, and a huge blast at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta in 2004 when a ton of explosives was hidden in a delivery van.

Police on Saturday confirmed the death of a third Australian — bringing the number of confirmed foreign fatalities to at least four — and said their earlier toll of nine had included the two bombers.