A powerful car bomb has exploded near the Australian embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, leaving at least eight people dead and more than 160 others wounded.
Police immediately blamed the Southeast Asian terror network, Jemaah Islamiyah, for the blast, which happened at mid-morning Thursday. That group has been accused of involvement in several deadly bombings, including one at the Marriott hotel in the same neighborhood of Jakarta last year.
Indonesia's National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar said he suspects the attack was planned by Jemaah Islamiyah's top bomb-maker, Malaysian Azahari Husin. He is being sought for the Marriott attack and the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, many of them Australians.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the car bombing a terrorist attack directed at his country.
Information for this report is provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.