THE terrorists who massacred almost 200 people in the bomb attack in Bali last month were trying to kill as many Americans as possible, a self-confessed member of the gang has said.

“It was for revenge because of what Americans have done to Muslims. So that is their intention: to kill as many Americans as they can,” Major-General Made Mangku Pastika, the head of the Indonesian investigation team, said. The bombers were unhappy because so many of the dead had been Australians, rather than their intended targets, he added.

The arrest of the man, whom police named as Amrozi, has provided a breakthrough in the investigation into the bombings on October 12, in which at least 190 people, most of them young Australian tourists, were killed. Six US citizens have been identified as victims. At least 19 Britons were among the dead.

On Wednesday Mr Amrozi admitted being among those who planted the bombs. The police identified him by tracing the chassis number of the mini-van used in the attack.

General Pastika said that Mr Amrozi had shown police where the bomb used in the attack on the Sari nightclub was made. “They found the residues of the material of the bomb in the house, so they are now searching (for) more,” he said. Police also said that Mr Amrozi had given them the names of some of his fellow conspirators.

“If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to catch more of these people in the not too distant future,” General Edward Aritonang, the national police spokesman, said. Detectives believe that between six and ten people were invoved.

Mr Amrozi’s neighbours in the village of Tenggulun, where he worked as a mechanic, have said that he was visited on several occasions by Abu Bakar Bashir, an Islamic cleric accused of being the spiritual leader of a designated terrorist organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah. Mr Bashir is being held for questioning over a series of bomb attacks against Christian churches on Christmas Eve 2000. He denies involvement in terrorism or Jemaah Islamiyah.

• Nasharuddin Nasir, 45, a fish merchant accused of being a member of Kampulan Mujihiddin Malaysia, an extreme Islamic group with alleged links to al-Qaeda, was released from custody by a judge in Kuala Lumpur after police failed to produce evidence against him.

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