Jakarta, Paris, San Bernardino: The Age of ‘Marauding Terrorist Firearms

The five Islamic State militants behind Thursday’s gun and bomb assault on Jakarta had planned to launch attacks on other Indonesian cities with the help of at least 12 others, police said on Saturday.

They are being questioned over possible links to the Jakarta attacks which killed seven people, including five of the perpetrators.

The country’s police chief said the man had confessed to planning a suicide atttack in the country.

The spokesman said three men arrested at dawn in their homes in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta were no longer suspected of being linked to the attack.

Ms Bishop said on Friday Australia had been “deeply concerned” for some time about the possibility of an attack in the region, as IS militants reach out beyond the Middle East.

In November 2010, the National Police’s counterterrorism unit (Densus 88) arrested Bahrun and seized hundreds of rounds of ammunition at his house in Pasar Kliwon, Surakarta. “We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them… and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not home-grown terrorism, it is part of the ISIS network”, Tito Karnavian said, using another acronym for the Syria-based group.

Pandjaitan said his office was working with parliament to make changes to legislation that would allow pre-emptive arrests.

Experts agree that there is a growing threat from radicalised Muslims inspired by the ISIS, some of whom may have fought with the group in Syria.

But they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude.

The attacks killed a Canadian and an Indonesian civilian. Twenty people were injured.

The alleged mastermind behind the Jakarta attack, an Indonesian citizen fighting with Islamic State in Syria, is believed to have used social media extensively to share his beliefs about the group and communicate with contacts in Indonesia using blog posts and mobile messaging apps.

Supporters of the IS also circulated a claim of responsibility for the attack on Twitter late on Thursday.

“His vision is to unite all ISIS supporting elements in Southeast Asia”, Jakarta police chief Karnavian said. Malaysia placed the country on its highest alert. He said Indonesia will continue to see a persistent and low-level threat of violence, a situation not different from the past six years when there were no major attacks but several thwarted plots.

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia, the umbrella body of Protestant churches, called on Christians in particular and Indonesian society in general not to let terrorism tear down unity in the country.

Backers of the Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility.

The head of Indonesia’s second-largest Muslim organisation, Din Syamsuddin, warned on Friday against “Islamophobia” following the Jakarta attack but also urged Muslims not to be influenced by “radical teachings”.

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