“We offer our full support to the Indonesian authorities during this challenging time”, he said in a statement Thursday. Indonesians were shaken but refusing…
Advertisement
Details emerged about the attackers just as police told an Indonesian TV channel that three men have been arrested on suspicion of having links to the attacks, which has sparked concerns over the rise of ISIS in the Southeast Asian nation.
It ended when two of the attackers were killed in a suicide bombing, said police, with the other three killed in gun battles.
Charliyan added police would be conducting raids Friday as they probe those responsible for the bloodshed, which spilled out in dramatic fashion on a bustling street in the mid-morning.
Jakarta Police Chief Tito Karnavian revealed the attackers were linked to IS in Raqqa, Syria, in particular an Indonesian named Bahrun Naim.
On Thursday, militants launched a coordinated bomb and gun attack along one of Jakarta’s main thoroughfares.
“We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them … and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not homegrown terrorism, it is part of the [IS] network”, he said.
A victim who was injured in last week’s extremist attack in Jakarta has died, raising the overall death toll to eight.
“Canada will continue to stand by Indonesia and co-operate in the fight against extremism”.
Police spokesman Anton Charliyan said another attacker, whose name was not revealed, was also a former terrorism convict.
Attackers also used suicide vests to blow themselves up in a Starbucks café, popular with locals and foreigners alike, as well as assaulting a nearby police post.
National police chief Gen. Badrodin said one of the men killed, known as Sunakim, was previously sentenced to seven years in prison for his involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah-orchestrated military-style training in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
A bomb disposal unit was seen entering the building where the Starbucks is located, which also houses a cinema where at one stage, police exchanged fire with gunmen.
Santoso had threatened to unleash attacks in Jakarta.
Haiti said a suspected militant was killed in a gunbattle in central Sulawesi, the hiding place of Indonesia’s most wanted Islamic radical, Abu Wardah Santoso, who leads the East Indonesia Mujahidin network that has pledged allegiance to IS.
MetroTV broadcast footage of the handcuffed men being escorted by police.
Under President Joko Widodo, elected in 2014, Indonesia has managed to contain its erstwhile radical Islamist problem.
In interviews with witnesses and authorities, as well as video obtained by Reuters, a picture emerges of a calculated attack that swiftly fizzled out due to the militants’ lack of sophisticated weaponry and amateurish execution.
“We must not be afraid, we must not be defeated by an act of terror like this”, he said in televised comments.
Advertisement
At about 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, one militant emerged from a toilet in a Starbucks cafe and detonated a suicide bomb, killing himself and injuring several others, police said.
