Indonesian police say they have arrested others linked to Thursday’s attack by militants linked to the so-called Islamic State group in the centre of Jakarta.
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They killed two people, one a Canadian and the other an Indonesian, and injured 20 in the first major attack in Indonesia since 2009.
Malaysia has been on high alert since Thursday’s bomb and gun attacks in neighbouring Indonesia’s. Black armoured cars screeched to a halt in front of the Starbucks and sniper teams were deployed around the neighbourhood as helicopters buzzed overhead.
Jakarta’s chief of police, Inspector-General Tito Karnavian, said an IS plot had been foiled in late 2015 and a number of suspects detained, including a man who said he had received instructions from Mr. Naim.
Other countries in the region scrambled to ramp up security measures in response.
Indonesian authorities blame it on an IS faction made up primarily of Malay-speaking Indonesians and Malaysians involved in the extremist group’s ruthless fight for a self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
Three men were taken into custody in dawn raids on a house at Depok, West Java, however it has been reported this may have been an unrelated police operation. MetroTV broadcast footage of the handcuffed men being escorted by police.
Haiti said the amounts transferred were “quite large” and channelled through Indonesian extremist Bahrun Naim, believed to be the founding member of Katibah Nusantara and who police say orchestrated the Jakarta attacks from Syria.
The attackers were killed subsequently, either by their suicide vests or by police.
“These terrorist attacks can occur anywhere and anytime, that’s why we are continuing to ensure that our law enforcement security and intelligence have the resources and the support that they need to keep Australians safe”, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
Two of the five were previously convicted and jailed for terror offences. The Islamic State (IS) movement claimed responsibility for these attacks in Thamrin Road in the center of Jakarta.
After the coordinated attacks across Paris in November, the militant intellectual published a blog in which he explained to his followers how it was easy to move jihad from “guerrilla warfare” in Indonesia’s equatorial jungles to a city.
Police initially said there were five attackers, all killed.
The statement could not be independently verified by The Associated Press, though it resembled previous claims made by the group.
Indonesia has suffered militant attacks in the past, but has been relatively successful in curbing home-grown Islamist extremism after a spate of attacks in the last decade.
Seven people, including five suicide bombers and gunmen, were killed during the attacks at a Starbucks cafe and a traffic police booth.
President Joko Widodo said on Twitter that “there is no place for terrorism in Indonesia”. Few have come back. Their identification with the Islamic State group in distant Syria is an attempt to change those perceptions by linking to a network known for brutal, headline-grabbing attacks.
Some terror experts say an IS network was developing in the suburbs of Jakarta while counterterrorism efforts were focused on hunting down Indonesia’s most wanted militant in far-off Sulawesi.
Meanwhile Indonesians were shaken but refusing to be cowed, a day after the outrage in a busy district of central Jakarta.
“Stupid terrorists! Where did you get the idea that you can go to heaven by killing the innocents and then commit suicide, which is banned in Islam?” said one message.
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Starbucks has closed all of its outlets in Jakarta until further notice. Newspapers carried bold front-page headlines declaring the country united in its condemnation of the bombings.
