In recent years, Indonesian counterterrorism forces successfully stamped out the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah that was responsible for several attacks, including the 2002 bombings of bars in Bali which killed 202 people, as well as two hotel bombings in Jakarta in 2009 that killed seven people.
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“We must not be afraid, we must not be defeated by an act of terror like this”, he said in televised comments.
Police have told an Indonesian TV channel that they have arrested three men on suspicion of links to the attack in Jakarta. “We have them in our pocket and we can identify them – whether it be in Java or outside Java”, he said.
On Saturday, Indonesian police said they had arrested 12 people in raids across the country, including a man they believe handled financing for the attacks, money authorities allege came from IS. About 30 people were hurt.
One of the militants seen carrying a gun and rucksack during the attacks was named as Afif Sunakim.
Charliyan reportedly said that two of the five men involved in the attacks were previously convicted and imprisoned for terrorism offenses.
Police in the city of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan province said they had arrested one suspected militant, but it was not clear if he was related to the Jakarta attack, the Antara news agency reported.
The attack “was funded by ISIS in Syria through Bahrun Naim”, Haiti told reporters after Friday prayers, without elaborating.
Indonesian authorities say the attack shows the emerging threat from ISIS in their country.
As many as 800 Indonesians have joined the IS group in Syria and Iraq and they have already returned to Indonesia, said Said Agil Siraj, chairman of Indonesia’s biggest Muslim organization l Ulema.
They said the five attackers had been killed either in the initial bombings or later firefight. “We can not say how many people have been caught yet because it may interfere with our tragedy”, said Chief of Metropolitan Police Public Relations Mohammad Iqbal, who jointly held in the press conference. Twenty-four people were seriously wounded, including an Austrian, German and a Dutchman.
It’s suspected there was a relationship between the Jakarta attack and the person killed in Poso, who was a member of the Santoso group, Haiti said on Saturday.
Islamic State said in its claim of responsibility that “a group of soldiers of the caliphate in Indonesia targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance that fights the Islamic State in Jakarta”.
Workers clean debris outside a Starbucks cafe, near the site Thursday’s attack in Jakarta.
Three men with suspected links to the attackers were also arrested on Friday.
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Indonesia suffered several large bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, but a subsequent security crackdown weakened the most risky networks, and there had been no major attacks since 2009. The topic of the “handsome” Indonesian police officers who responded to the attack trended on social media Friday.
