He also defended BIN’s failure to prevent the attack, reiterating the random nature of this type of terrorism. He was apprehended in 2010 for illegal possession of ammunition and was brought to justice.
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Thursday’s attack was poorly organised, poorly executed and poorly received by the people of Jakarta.
Police chiefs across the country were put on high alert, some embassies in Jakarta were closed for the day and security was stepped up on the resort island of Bali, a draw for tourists from Australia and other Asian countries.
So far there have been no claims of responsibility, but one analyst likened the attacks to the November 13 Paris massacre in which terrorists linked to ISIS struck several locations at the same time.
There was a mastermind behind Thursday’s attack in front of a Starbucks in central Jakarta, and he orchestrated and financed it from ISIS headquarters in Syria, Indonesian police said.
A statement said: “During the morning of 14 January there were explosions and gunfire reported in the vicinity of the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel and Sarinah Plaza on Jalan Sudirman Thamrin, Jakarta in central Jakarta”.
Following Thursday’s attack, an Indonesian anti-terror source told CNN it was “highly possible” a particular blog is run by Naim himself or by people posting on his behalf.
Insp Gen Karnavian said Naim’s “vision” is to unite the various IS-supporting groups across South East Asia.
In the Telegram exchange with Reuters, Naim also spoke of more mundane affairs, explaining that he enjoyed life in Syria and had no plans to return to Indonesia.
Two of the attackers were killed in a suicide bombing, police said, with the other three killed in gun battles with police.
After the first explosion, two men armed with pistols took two men hostage. Outside, two gunmen opened fire, killing a Canadian and wounding an Indonesian, he said.
We should avoid assuming the worst about the region just because it is host to large, Muslim-majority countries – or dismissing those countries’ ability to fight violent radicalism themselves. It felt like an quake.
It “sounds like the Paris attack to me”, Baer said. “Then the police post… exploded”.
Eliaz Warre, who witnessed the attack, said he was riding on a motorbike when the explosion went off at the police post. Charliyan said 19 people, including at least one more foreigner, were wounded.
Bodies of the militants who were killed were left sprawling in the street.
The terror in Jakarta hit a bustling shopping district and began with a suicide bombing outside a Starbucks cafe. The area is home to many luxury hotels, and offices and embassies, including the French. Yet the number of dead was nowhere near the toll of 130 in France, with Clarke Jones, a counterterrorism expert at Australian National University, calling it “fairly amateurish… with hand grenades and firearms”.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged people to remain calm.
“The state, the nation and the people should not be afraid of, and be defeated by, such terror acts”.
In an Indonesian tradition, well-wishers bought floral displays of condolence and placed them near the cafe.
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“The only group that has the capability and the intention to mount coordinated, simultaneous attacks in Jakarta is the ISIS network”, he told AFP in Singapore. And by nighttime, authorities were no longer hunting for attackers – though they are looking for those who helped them in plotting, financing and getting weaponry, according to Charliyan, the police spokesman.
