SYDNEY, Sept 10 (AFP) - The Jakarta car bombing drove home Australia's position as a frontline target in the war on terror and would cast a dark shadow over the country's October 9 election, Australian newspapers said Friday.
"Terror at our door" said the Australian newspaper, with the Sydney Morning Herald declaring "Evil at our gate" and Sydney's Daily Telegraph describing the bombing as "an unprecedented attack on Australia".
All newspapers carried pictures of the embassy's bomb-ravaged facade, its windows shattered and the Australian flag fluttering in the foreground.
Editorials said it was clear that terrorists were directly targeting Australians, unlike the October 2002 Bali bombing, when 88 Australians were among 202 killed in an attack aimed at Westerners in general.
"While the terrorist attack in Bali was aimed at all Western tourists, this time it seems to have become personal," the Daily Telegraph said.
Both Prime Minister John Howard and opposition Labor Party leader Mark Latham suspended campaigning in the immediate aftermath of Thursday's bombing out of respect for at least nine dead and 180 injured.
Newspapers said the attack's impact on the election could not be ignored as it placed national security at the forefront of a campaign that has so far been dominated by economic issues.
"The bombing in Jakarta could become the event that crushed Mark Latham's bid to get a Labor government elected," the Daily Telegraph said, pointing out that opinion polls showed most voters viewed Howard as more capable on national security.
The Sydney Morning Herald said the attack was likely to create a mood of uncertainty and insecurity.
"Such a feeling often encourages voters to stay with the incumbent government," it said.
The Australian said the bombers had cast a "dark shadow" over the election with a misguided attempt to provoke a backlash against the government's strong support for the US-led war on terror.
But it said Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group which has claimed responsibility for the attack, would not produce the reaction that saw the Spanish government ousted last March after terrorist attacks in Madrid killed 191 people.
The Financial Review said it could have the opposite effect, pointing out that voters rallied around Howard at the last election, shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The Sydney Morning Herald said, at the very least, the attack would affect the election by making it more difficult for Labor to get its message across as national security issues dominate.