Jakarta – One of two men arrested Friday shortly after the blast of a home-made bomb rocked a Protestant church in the Indonesian capital had fought with Muslim rebels in the Malukus, a report said here Sunday.

"From the admission of Wahyu Handoko, one of the suspects, he had been part of a Jihad group in Ambon," Jakarta police spokesman Senior Commissioner Anton Bahrul Alam told the Kompas daily.

Muslims in the Malukus have been fighting a Jihad, or Holy War, against Christians since January 1999 – sometimes with the assistance of Muslim radicals from Java.

Alam said that the priest at the bombed church, Reverend Diane Akyuwen, is orginally from Wai island near Ambon, the main island in the Malukus, adding the churchman was believed to be the target of the bombing.

Police are currently questioning the two men who are believed to have thrown the bomb through a church window while a third suspect is still at large.Police are also looking for three more people who had been seen waiting in a car outside the church, Alam said.

Three more unexploded home-made bombs were found inside the church after the blast which shattered several windows. No one was hurt even though a congregation was participating in an evening service at the time.

It was the second blast in a week in the Indonesian capital: on Tuesday two men on a motorcycle hurled a grenade into the grounds of the Australian International School in southern Jakarta, but no-one was injured.