A heightened terror alert has been issued for the Indonesian Borneo provinces of East and North Kalimantan, and security is tight in the capital with police inspecting vehicles at random to look for bombs and weapons.
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It later emerged the trio was not linked with the Jakarta attack. Indonesians were shaken but refusing…
Inspector General Tito Karnavian said the attackers had been “neutralised” but were linked to groups across Indonesia and were “part of a global network”.
Authorities have named Bahrum Naim, an Indonesian believed to be fighting with IS in Syria, as the suspected co-ordinator, according to BBC report.
The tragic event has been claimed by Islamic State group and five of those killed were attackers.
Nevertheless, it was the first time the radical group has targeted the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, and the brazenness of the attack suggested a new brand of militancy in a country more used to low-level strikes on police.
The IS link, if proved, poses a grave challenge to Indonesian security forces.
The suicide bombing and gunfight took place on Jl Thamrin, between a Starbucks coffee shop and a police post in the middle of a busy intersection. He did not elaborate.
Insp Gen Karnavian said Indonesia had significantly developed its understanding of domestic militant networks since the 2002 bomb attack in Bali, which killed 202 people.
There is no word on what happened to them, but after the explosion several other police and medical personnel in white overalls were seen running to the cafe.
He did not elaborate on the army’s role but AFP reporters saw a passing convoy of a half-dozen military trucks filled with heavily armed soldiers in central Jakarta, and heightened security elsewhere, with police patrolling in flak jackets.
National Police Spokesman Anton Charliyan says an IS flag was found among the possessions of one of the attackers.
Indonesian police yesterday arrested three suspected militants in a pre-dawn raid and hunted down others across the country, a day after an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in the heart of Jakarta.
Law enforcement officials also searched the derelict home of another dead bomber, identified as Muhammad Ali.
Terrorism expert Sidney Jones said the ISIS South-East Asia leader Bahrun Naim praised the tragic violence in the French capital.
On Thursday, the five men – one of them reported to be carrying a black Daesh flag – attacked a Starbucks cafe and police traffic booth with hand-made bombs, guns and suicide vests, killing two people – an Indonesian and a Canadian national.
Terrorism experts say IS supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah and other groups.
Vietnam Airlines issued a statement Thursday night saying its flight from Ho Chi Minh City landed at 1 p.m. (Jakarta time) Thursday while another left Jakarta the same day.
“They are sending the message that we are not going to be just a Syria-Iraq issue”.
Graphic photographs from the scene showed the bloodied bodies of what appeared to be two men in civilian clothes lying by the side of a road next to the wrecked police post.
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“We would like to extend our honest condolences to the Indonesian government as well as families of the victims, and strongly believe that those responsible will be severely punished”, the spokesperson stated.
