Indonesian police arrest 12 after Jakarta attack

In the 2000s, militants linked up with al-Qaeda to carry out a string of attacks, the last in Jakarta in 2009 on luxury hotels, but have been under pressure from a concerted crackdown by security forces.

Indonesian police named one of the attackers behind Thursday’s assault in Jakarta that left seven people dead, including five suicide bombers and gunmen.

Indonesia rooted out efforts by the group to establish a base there several years ago and has made it clear that the organization and its followers are not welcome. At the same time, pro-IS rallies in Indonesia were attracting small crowds.

A Canadian and an Indonesian national, both civilians, also died and at least 20 people were injured.

In this June 18, 2014, file photo, a man wears a headband showing the Islamic State group’s symb …

Indonesian police said they believed Bahru Naim, an Indonesian now thought to be in Syria had masterminded the attack and been “planning this for a while” and that they had received funding from Syria for the attacks.

Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attack in Jakarta.

“They are establishing branches of Isis across the world – in France, Europe, Africa, Turkey as well as Southeast Asia”, he told reporters this week.

“We are not going to increase our presence there”, she said.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

However, they later said that the situation was “under control” after five militants were killed, including a foreigner. However, they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude. The main impact, he said, is from the “hype and fear that it conjures”.

An Indonesian militant called Bahrun Naim was identified as the man who organised the plot.

In Pakistan, where terrorism is a major factor of daily life, Father Khalid Yousaf, acting executive secretary of the bishops’ commission for social communications, condemned the terrorist attacks in Indonesia and expressed sympathy for the victims.

“It’s basically the same people”, he said.

The attacker, Afif Sunakim, was a militant who was given a seven-year jail term for attending a militant camp, BBC reported. He was released early.

Traffic is flowing and the road sweepers are busy but the police post which was hit remains boarded up, and the Starbucks cafe at the centre of the attack is surrounded by iron fencing, curious onlookers and media using anything at hand to peer over the top at the blown out windows.

A few hundred Indonesians are known to have traveled to Syria to join the IS.

The assault on a Starbucks cafe and a police post in the Indonesian capital, while unsophisticated, was the first in Southeast Asia to be directed or inspired by IS, and follows months of warnings by security officials that its members posed a threat to the region.

Returning to the area outside Jakarta’s oldest department store, Sarinah, where Thursday’s attack unfolded, Indonesian President Joko Widodo briefly toured the area and spoke with workers. “It’s because we have been obstructing and arresting them”, Badrodin told reporters, here, today.

He said the taking of hostages – one who was Algerian and a fellow Muslim – was “further indication that it was poorly planned and poorly carried out”.