3 men arrested over suspected links to Jakarta attack

Police said two other attackers were also previously convicted militants.

Still, authorities and analysts believe the violence that left the city of 10 million on edge for hours was a loud announcement of the Islamic State group’s presence in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

Indeed IS has claimed responsibility, though it remains unclear whether the attacks were directed or inspired by the terrorist group.

Indonesian authorities have vowed to round up members of a terror cell behind the deadly bomb and gun attack on Jakarta.

Police also added that – contrary to other news reports – no arrests were made after a raid on Friday morning at a location in Depok, a suburb a Jakarta, where IS flags where seized. All five gunmen were killed and twenty people were wounded in the attacks, police said. “But thank God it didn’t happen”. “We have identified all attackers”, Maj.-Gen.

National police spokesman Anton Charliyan has told reporters a black IS flag was found with one of the Jakarta attackers and police believe they have established their identities.

He said they imitated the recent “terror acts” in Paris and were likely from the Islamic State group, but gave no evidence.

Australian Attorney-General George Brandis, who was in Jakarta recently to bolster security coordination, told the Australian newspaper he had “no doubt” Islamic State was seeking to establish a “distant caliphate” in Indonesia.

He said the attack involved an unknown number of assailants with grenades and guns, at least one on a motorcycle. Abu Bakar Bashir, who leads a South-East Asian Islamist group called Jemaah Islamiyah, has pledged allegiance to IS, and around 2,000 people have joined rallies in support of IS.

Just seven people were killed despite multiple blasts and a gunfight, and five of them were the attackers themselves, but the brazenness of the assault suggested a new brand of militancy in a country where low-level strikes on police are common.

“What we need today is to strengthen our capability and also sharing information with others because it is not homegrown in Indonesia, but is being part of global networks”, he said. The heightened security ended January 6.

“Their main aim was just to give impression that ISIS’s supporters here are able to do what was done in Paris”.

Kompas.com reported Haiti as claiming that the money was sent by attack mastermind Naim to two people in Central Java in November 2015, but he refused to divulge their names.

As smoke was seen billowing from the shopping centre, another bomber detonated his suicide vest in the cafe, wounding several inside.

The area has many luxury hotels, and offices in high-rise buildings and embassies, including the French.

He said the two dead civilians were a Dutch citizen and an Indonesian.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has suffered a spate of deadly attacks by the Jemaah Islamiyah network in the past.