Reality came on Thursday in the form of a bold attack in the middle of Jakarta, the capital.
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On Wednesday – the day before the attack – 2,000 Indonesian security personnel were deployed to the mountainous forests of Sulawesi in the latest operation aimed at capturing Santoso. Yet the low death toll two victims and five attackers highlighted their weaknesses and the ability of security forces to respond rapidly.
Workers clean up outside the Starbucks cafe where an attack occurred on Thursday, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.
Meanwhile Indonesians were shaken but refusing to be cowed, a day after the outrage in a busy district of central Jakarta.
The statement could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, though it resembled previous claims made by the group.
The small number of people laying tributes outside the coffee shop and police outpost told CNN they had rarely seen the bustling, 24-hour street so quiet.
The UNEP said the man works for the organization in Jakarta and is a “renowned expert in forestry and ecosystems management” who is part of a United Nations team supporting the Indonesian government in tackling peat land fires. Foreign ambassadors also joined the event. They unfurled posters that read, “We are not afraid”.
On Tuesday, the jailed radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir appealed to an Indonesia court to have his conviction for funding a terror training camp overturned, arguing that his support for the camp was an act of worship. They said the attackers imitated the terror actions in Paris, which killed 130 people.
Officer have arrested three men on suspicion of links to the plot and seized an Isis flag from one of the bombers.
Indonesia’s Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said terror group Islamic State (IS) was the perpetrator of the suicide bombing in Jakarta on Thursday that killed seven people and injured 20 others. The attackers also were killed, either by their suicide vests or by police.
Police named one – Afif Sunakim, seen carrying a gun and rucksack during the attacks.
Naim was sentenced to at least two and a half years in prison. He was released early.
Charliyan reportedly said that two of the five men involved in the attacks were previously convicted and imprisoned for terrorism offenses. Two civilians and five suspected attackers died in the gun and bomb assault.
Regional nations have been warning for months of the possibility of attack, mirroring concerns expressed by European authorities fearful of the intentions of people returning home from conflict.
“Paris in November, Istanbul this week and Jakarta today”, Hugo Brennan, Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, said on Thursday.
The condolence flowers have now been removed – probably to stop the crowds gathering to take selfies, risking their lives in the morning traffic.
Media reported that three people suspected of plotting an attack were arrested before dawn in Depok, just south of Jakarta.
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Police also boosted watch over embassies, hotels and resorts including the popular beachfront compounds in Bali, where Islamists militants staged attacks in 2002 at nightclubs that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
