Jakarta Attacks: Convicted Militant Named As Attacker

An attack by suicide bombers in the heart of Indonesia’s capital was funded by the militant Islamic State group, police said on Friday, as they seized an IS flag from the home of one of the attackers and carried out raids across the country in which one suspected militant was killed.

Another 20 people were injured, some of them reported to remain in critical condition. “We have them in our pocket and we can identify them – whether it be in Java or outside Java”, he said. The attackers were killed, either by suicide vests or subsequently by police. About 30 people were hurt.

Police previously confirmed a Canadian citizen was among the dead.

Another attacker, who opened fire with a gun outside the cafe, was named as Afif. He had been arrested by the country’s counterterrorism force.

Indonesian policemen guard the blast site. – File picJAKARTA, Jan 17 ― The death toll in the Jakarta extremist attack has risen to eight, including four civilian victims and four militants, after a wounded Indonesian bystander died overnight, police said today.

“For this, we are searching for the networks and who was involved in this action”, Anton Charliyan, national police spokesman, reportedly said.

“There were general plans targeting certain places like police and government offices, foreigners or those cooperating with foreign entities”, Charliyan told reporters.

In a statement, Khalid said the 28-year old Malaysian admitted that he was planning to be a suicide bomber.

No details were given about where and how he planned to attack.

Terrorism experts say Islamic State supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah but are also trying to recruit new members.

Photographs showed Afif, dressed in a baseball cap and jeans, and wearing a backpack and shoulder bag, pointing a gun at a crowd at the scene of the attack on Thamrin Street in Jakarta. Security has been beefed up in public areas and borders have been tightened to prevent militant extremists from entering the country.

“IS is changing strategy”, said Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian, the former head of Indonesia’s anti-terrorism unit.

Communications Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu urged Indonesians to report militant websites and social media accounts.

Alarm around the world over the danger stemming from Islamic State rocketed after the Paris attacks and the killing of 14people in California in December.

But the language and cultural commonalities of Katibah Nusantara followers could help keep fighters in the fold and provide an enduring tool for coordinating attacks across South-East Asia and recruiting more fighters to Syria, analysts said. An estimated 1,000-plus Indonesians are said to sympathize with Islamic State militants and seek opportunities to join the group in the Middle East.