Indonesia police arrest 12 in Jakarta attack

Seven people died in Thursday’s attack, which also left more than 20 people injured.

According to the New York Times, Bahrun wrote a recent blog post supporting the Paris attacks in November, and praised the high death toll.

Kevin O’Rourke, a respected commentator on Indonesia, said Islamic State leaders may conclude the attackers demonstrated “relatively weak prowess” with their weapons, and this could “blunt the impetus for attempting other such operations with Indonesian suicide attackers”. He said Naim had transferred thousands of dollars to local accounts in the lead up to the assault.

Police have told an Indonesian TV channel that they have arrested three men on suspicion of links to the attack in Jakarta. The Islamic State (ISIS) militant group claimed responsibility for the violence.

National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters the 12 arrests were made in west and east Java and in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island. And no matter how “tiny” the group, as he called them, they have proved they can kill.

MetroTV broadcast footage of the handcuffed men being escorted by police.

Police are yet to release the names of those identified or other details, but said two of the dead militants were fugitive terrorism suspects.

Four attackers also are dead, following the bombing and a firefight with police. The militants were killed, either by their suicide vests or by police.

The police chief said Afif has been recruited to IS by Indonesian extremist Bahrum Naim, who is believed to be a founding member of Katibah Nusantara and who police say orchestrated Thursday’s attacks from Syria.

Jakarta’s police chief, Tito Karnavian, said on Friday Indonesia needed to strengthen its response and implement preventive measures to battle the new threat. And The Associated Press reported that an ISIS flag was found at the crime scene.

Boni Boniviano said he was nearly trapped inside one of the buildings targeted by extremists during Thursday’s terrorist attack in the heart of Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.

Police left open the possibility that one of the five alleged militants responsible for the rampage might have been a civilian caught in the cross hairs, stressing their investigation into his identity was incomplete.

The ISIS link poses a grave challenge to security force in Indonesia, which until now was thought to have relatively few sympathizers an no active cells capable of planning and carrying out such an attack.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo tweeted on Friday that there was “no place for terrorism on Earth” and that “every citizen in the world” needed to fight it.

Police have named an Islamic State-linked Indonesian militant as the mastermind behind the bombing here Thursday that killed seven people, including five of the perpetrators.

The rapid-fire series of bombings and a shootout between gunmen and police erupted in the centre of the capital, shocking moderate Muslim Indonesians.