In the hands of jihadis, nearly any household object can become a vessel for a low-rent explosive. Not even the printed word is sacred.

Jemaah Islamiyah, or J.I., an Indonesian jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda, mailed three bombs concealed inside books to a liberal Islamic activist, a youth group leader and a former member of Indonesia’s counterterrorism police, Indonesian officials said Wednesday. The bombs didn’t manage to kill anyone. One device injured five while being defused by a policeman, and the other two were found by the authorities and safely dismantled.

In the past, al-Qaeda and its cronies have hidden bombs in their underwear, inside their shoes, up their butts, in printer cartridges, video cameras and sports-drink bottles. So what’s inside these new bombs?  There’s no part-for-part breakdown of the devices at the moment, but a few details on their makeup have trickled out.

The bombmakers hid the devices by hollowing out the pages of books and placing the device inside. A cellphone  and wires were placed inside the package. While it would stand to reason they’d be used for detonation, their specific function in the bomb is unclear.

J.I. didn’t do too good a job of making the packages look normal books. A security guard who handled the package sent to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a co-founder of the Liberal Islamic Network, got suspicious when he saw the wires hanging out, and alerted the police. Abadalla’s advocacy of religious tolerance, including his recent defense of the minority Ahmadi Muslim sect against extremists, might explain why he was targeted by J.I. The explosive that went into the bomb intended for him reportedly contained a mixture of potassium and aluminum and was packed with nails.

J.I. also opted to get a bit literary in their selection of books, though their choice of titles betrays a tragic literalism. Abdalla and Gories Mere, a former chief of Indonesia’s counterterrorism police and now head of its antinarcotics branch, received bombs buried in books titled They Must be Killed for their Sins Against Islam and Muslims. Yapto Soerjosoemarno, leader of the Pemuda Pancasila youth group, received a book-bomb with the title Does the Pancasila Still Exist. (Pancasila is the philosophy of the Indonesian state.)

Abdalla’s package included a letter asking him to write a preface to the book — essentially autographing his own murder. “I the undersigned [...] Is [sic] in the middle of writing a book that requires your immediate attention and active role in the foundation that you are leading. The writer is requesting your participation in writing a preface for my book,” it read.

And if this tactic sounds a bit familiar, you’re not mistaken. Greek terrorists mailed bombs concealed in books to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the French embassy in Greece back in November.

The threat from J.I. has declined in recent years, although J.I. militants still stage occasional attacks. Last year, Indonesian police killed Dulmatin, J.I.’s top bombmaker and the man who built the 2002 Bali bomb.

Photo: cuttlefish/Flickr

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