Australian opposition leader links Jakarta embassy bombing to Iraq war

Australia's opposition leader Mark Latham on Sunday linked the bombing outside Australian Embassy in Indonesia with Australia's involvement in the Iraq war.

Speaking on televised debate with Prime Minister John Howard onNine TV network, Latham said Australia will be safer if the effort,the money and the resources went into the Iraq war had been used to break up al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network.

Jemaah Islamiah (JI), an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist network in Southeast Asia, has claimed responsibility for the powerful suicide car bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Indonesian capital of Jakarta which killed nine people, injuring 180 more Thursday.

Australia is a staunch ally of the United States in the Iraq war and sent about 2,000 troops to participate the war last year and now still remains about 850 military personnel in the war-tornMiddle East country.

"While we've got no way of reversing this decision and what's happened, we've got to learn the mistakes that were made in relation to Iraq and get it right for the future," said Latham.

"Unless we do that, we diminish our capacity to keep our peoplesafe," he said.

Denying Latham's charges, Howard said Australia can do both of the jobs.

"We can finish the job there and do our full part in our part of the world," said Howard.

Howard also gave further explanation to remarks by Deputy PrimeMinister John Anderson who said earlier on Sunday that Australia may more likely become target of terrorist attack due to involvement in the Iraq war.

Howard said Anderson was meaning that Australia's close cooperation with Indonesia after the 2002 Bali bombing in an effort to weaken JI is a possible reason of last week's embassy bombing.

The "worm" poll of audience at the studio finally declared Latham the winner of the hour-long debate with 67 percent of approval rating to Howard's 33 percent.

The worm is an animated illustration of audience's reaction to both leaders' statements during the debate.

Source: Xinhua