ISIL Claims Attack on Indonesian Capital

1201 – A police spokesman said three police officers and three civilians had died in the attacks.

Office workers and unarmed police officers flee from the scene after a gun-battle broke out at the scene of an attack in Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 14, 2016.more +.

“So we think… their plan was to attack people and follow it up with a larger explosion when more people gathered”.

A news agency affiliated to Islamic State has reported the groups responsibility.

Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said one man entered the Starbucks cafe and blew himself up, wounding several inside.

Malaysian authorities have detained more than 150 suspects linked to the Islamic State group over the past two years, including some who were allegedly plotting attacks in strategic areas of Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesian police say the assailants probably wanted to copy the November Paris attacks by striking several locations at the same time.

Jakarta police spokesman Colonel Muhammad Iqbal said seven people, including four attackers were killed in Thursday’s incidents.

The assault also left an Indonesian man dead and 20 other people injured, and a pol-ice post destroyed, in what the country’s Pre-sident called “acts of terror”.

He said while Indonesia is generally a “very safe ” country, there is an ever-present background threat due to groups that are sympathetic to al Qaeda and ISIS.

Explosions and gunfire rang out for hours before police declared the situation under control. Five of the attackers were also killed.

The terror in Jakarta hit a bustling shopping district and began with a suicide bombing outside a Starbucks cafe. “The state, nation and people should not be afraid of, and lose to, such terror acts”.

Explosions have rocked Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, killing at least seven people in the area.

The country has been on high alert since authorities said they foiled a plot by Islamic militants to attack government officials, foreigners and others.

After news spread about the terrorist attacks in Central Jakarta, Indonesia’s benchmark stock index (Jakarta Composite Index, abbreviated JCI) plunged by 1.74 percent, while the Indonesian rupiah depreciated toward the IDR 14,000 per USA dollar level.

Jeremy Douglas, the UN Regional Representative for Southeast Asia, was travelling to a work meeting in a auto Thursday when the first bomb went off.

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

Up to 700 Indonesians have traveled to Syria in recent years to fight with anti-regime forces, with the majority allying themselves with ISIS, according to the Indonesian government.