Severed Heads Clue In Bali Probe

(CBS/AP)  Investigators hunting for the masterminds of three suicide bombings on the popular resort island of Bali hoped Monday to identify the bombers using photographs of their severed heads circulating in newspapers nationwide.

Police also sought three accomplices believed to still be on the Indonesian resort island, and enlisted a former operative of Southeast Asia's top terror group to help track down the plotters of Saturday's attack, which killed at least 22 people and wounded 104.

The suspects in the near-simultaneous bombings on three crowded restaurants were believed to have been fitted with explosive belts that blew apart their torsos. But their heads were intact, swollen and bruised but remarkably well-preserved, said Indonesian anti-terror official Maj. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai.

The heads — and a chilling video capturing a suspected bomber strolling past diners at one of the cafes moments before it was blown up — could provide a tremendous boost to the investigation.

Results could come within days, he said, adding three other people suspected of involvement were probably still at large on Bali.

"If the past is any precedent, they have planned safe houses and are lying low, letting the first dragnet pass over head," said Ken Conboy, a Jakarta-based security consultant and author of an upcoming book on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Bali has been hit before, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila Macvicar. Three years ago, bombs in a nightclub left more than 200 dead. Tourists went home; the Island's economy was just recovering.

"Before they bombed nightclubs so only the younger tourists had to worry about being bombed," said an Australian man. "But now it's targeting everyone, even older people who don't go to nightclubs so they won't come to Bali now."

Australia's government had warned it believed terrorist groups on the island were moving towards an attack. In spite of that heightened alert, intelligence was not specific enough to stop Saturday's attack.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks at two seafood cafes on Jimbaran beach and a noodle-and-steak house in the bustling tourist center of Kuta, all packed with diners on the busiest night of the week. The bombs went off within six minutes of each other.

But suspicion immediately fell on the al Qaeda-linked regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to several deadly bombings in the world's most populous Muslim country, including the 2002 nightclub attacks in Bali that killed 202 people.

Southeast Asian intelligence officials have repeatedly warned that the group could be orchestrating a major attack in the region and, fearing more strikes in the days ahead, were clamping down.

Thailand, which draws millions of sun-seeking tourists every year, put all of its major resort areas on full alert Monday after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned that terrorists "are commuting and rotating around in the region."

Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia were also on heightened alert.

If Jemaah Islamiyah's involvement in Saturday's blasts is confirmed, it could show that the group, crippled by a three-year regional crackdown, is capable of adapting, using for the first time explosive suicide vests, possibly set off by mobile phones. In the past, the militants have used easier-to-detect car bombs, packed with hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of chemicals.

Saturday's blasts came as Indonesia — the world's most populous Muslim nation — was preparing to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which starts on Wednesday here.

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