Anti-American group search Indonesian hotels

Groups of militant Indonesian Muslims have showed up at five international hotels in the central Java city of Solo, demanding to know if any American citizens were staying there.

Six groups of about 25 to 30 men each separately checked the five hotels and the city's airport.

No American citizens were found.

The men claimed to belong to a group calling itself the Anti-American Terrorist Force.

Their action came despite calls by the Central Java military commander, Major General Sumarsono, for Muslims to refrain from intimidating Americans.

The groups also left pamphlets warning of more to come if the US attacks Afghanistan.

Indonesian police have deployed hundreds of snipers and crack personnel to guard 17 key United States facilities in the capital, Jakarta, in view of rising anti-American sentiment.


Explosions

Two explosions have ripped through a busy Jakarta shopping mall amid concerns a campaign of violence in Indonesia would follow the terrorist attacks in the United States.

Police reported no deaths from the explosions in Indonesia's capital but paramedics treated a number of injuries.

"The two bombs were made of high explosives that were detonated with timers linked to the battery of one car," Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said.

"Some people are trying to create chaos here."

Firefighters later extinguished a blaze at the source of the explosions on the second floor of a parking lot.

Eight cars were badly wrecked and some were torn apart.

© 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation