Indonesia Makes Arrests Over Deadly Attack In Jakarta

Two were previously convicted militants. He was carrying a rucksack with a bomb inside, police said.

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

“It is true that a tiny number of the country’s army of poorly educated, desperately underemployed young men are attracted to the guts-and-glory narrative spun by ISIS”, author and long-time Indonesia foreign correspondent Elizabeth Pisani wrote in the Financial Times.

The report in Arabic said that a source told Aamaq that “fighters from the Islamic State carried out this morning an armed attack that targeted foreigners and the security forces tasked with protecting them in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta”.

Security analysts noted that the perpetrators of Thursday’s attack were poorly equipped, and the impact of their blasts limited. A higher court later cut the sentence to nine years.

The militant then left Indonesia, and is in Raqqa, “as part of the high ranks of ISIS”, Karnavian said.

ISIS – also known as Daesh – officially claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Experts say that while it’s hard to know how much of a foothold IS has established in Indonesia, the attack achieved two things: It showed that domestic militant groups are still capable of violence despite being fragmented by the government’s counterterrorism campaign; and gave at least the impression that IS now has the ability to launch attacks in Southeast Asia.

Condemning the attacks, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he was shocked and dismayed by news of the blasts. “The type is still being determined in the forensic laboratory”. The police said the explosives were small and much less powerful than those used in previous attacks in the country.

He said the two gunmen ran away with police chasing them.

But there was some confusion about the Dutch citizen’s status. Police cited a document seized from the group that described the planned attacks as a “concert”.

The attackers responded by firing back and tossing two grenades at the officers, according to Charliyan.

About two hours later, another explosion was heard from a cafe near the Starbucks, about five minutes after 25 anti-terror policemen entered it. It was not clear if the explosion was a controlled detonation or a bomb. Who facilitated the attack?

One man waved a sign in English saying, “Indonesia United, We’re not scared, we fight terrorism”. I see three dead people on the road.

Boni Marlen, a 22-year-old studying law, rode up to the scene on a mountain bike late Thursday and shook his head. Charliyan said IS leaders in Syria had called for the attack, and might have also helped with funding.

“We’ve sent teams to several cities for operations against targets we identified”, he told reporters.

Opinion: Is ISIS increasing presence in South East Asia? .

The region, home to about 15 percent of the world’s 1.57 billion Muslims, has also seen local militant groups carry out insurgencies in southern Thailand and southern Philippines, seeking either autonomy or independence. Twenty people were injured.

That is because while the country is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, its government and people have embraced a largely secular way of life, balancing Islamic principles with an openness that is nearly uniquely Indonesian.