Thursday Fact #2: Peaceful Muslims blow up Mcdonalds in Indonesia

Thu, Dec 05, 2002

Two Dead in Blast at McDonald's in Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An explosion ripped through a McDonald's restaurant in
the eastern Indonesian city of Makassar Thursday, killing two people, police
said.

"There were two blasts, the first at a McDonald's counter in Ratuh Indah
mall. Two people died," police officer Rafael Sandy told Reuters by
telephone from Makassar on Sulawesi island.

Two people were seriously wounded and several were slightly hurt, he said.

A second explosion, which caused no casualties, occurred about an hour later
in a car showroom about three miles away, Sandy said.

The McDonald's explosion came at 6:55 p.m., shortly after the breaking of
the Muslim fasting period for Ramadan, when the restaurant was busy.

Police were investigating whether the explosions were caused by bombs, Sandy
said.

There have been clashes, including bomb attacks, between Muslims and
Christians on parts of Sulawesi island and elsewhere in the sprawling,
predominantly Muslim country in recent years.

The blasts came in the midst of an investigation of an October 12 bomb
attack on the holiday island of Bali that killed at least 191 people, and
which has been blamed on a regional Muslim militant group and the al Qaeda
network.

Some bomb blasts in recent years have been blamed on separatist rebels and
criminal gangs.

In the wake of the Bali blasts several Western governments warned their
citizens about the danger of traveling in the country and the possible
targeting of Western interests.