Indonesian police have arrested three men over links to attacks in Jakarta that left seven people dead including five attackers, local TV reported.
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Attackers struck in the middle of the day Thursday, in the middle of a busy central Jakarta commercial hub – killing at least two, wounding 19 and raising alarms about terrorism once more, this time in the world’s most populous Muslim country.
Gen. Tito Karnavian, chief of the Jakarta Provincial Police and former head of the country’s elite national police counterterrorism unit, said at a news conference on Thursday that the perpetrators were linked to leaders of Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria.
“A group of soldiers of the caliphate in Indonesia targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance that fights the Islamic State in Jakarta through planting several explosive devices that went off as four of the soldiers attacked with light weapons and explosive belts”, the group said in a statement. Quoting a source, ‘Amaq said “fighters from the Islamic State carried out the attack targeting foreign nationals and security forces tasked with protecting them”.
Three men were arrested near Jakarta early on Friday, police told the media.
Indonesia has been on edge over recent weeks about the danger of Islamist militants and counter-terrorism police have launched a crackdown on people with suspected links to Islamic State.
The last major militant attacks in Jakarta were in July 2009, with bombs at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels, Reuters reported.
“Malaysia, as Indonesia’s neighbour, wishes to express its deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the families of those who perished or were injured in today’s bomb attack in Jakarta”, he said in a statement, here, yesterday.
It “sounds like the Paris attack to me”, Baer said.
Police say he is a key figure in planning attacks in Indonesia, several of which authorities said were foiled in 2015. Most infamously, bombings in Bali in 2002 killed more than 200 people, including many Australian tourists. They include four foreigners and six police officers. Police cited a document seized from the group that described the planned attacks as a “concert”.
Police uncovered a terrifying arsenal of ammunition, guns and bombs in one of the ISIS terrorist’s rucksacks following the attack that left seven people dead.
George Brandis, Australia’s Attorney-General, said last month that the so-called Islamic State had “ambitions to elevate its presence and level of activity in Indonesia”, either directly or through affiliates.
In the Philippines, the military went on “heightened alert” following the attacks in neighboring Indonesia, although it said no specific terrorist threats had been monitored. The people do not need to be afraid and should not be defeated by these terrorist acts.
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“A Dutch national has been severely injured and is now undergoing surgery at a hospital in Jakarta”, Angele Samura, the security adviser for the Netherlands Embassy in Jakarta, told CNN. The neighbourhood is home to many luxury hotels, high-rise buildings and diplomatic offices, including the French embassy.
