Police arrest 3 men on suspicion of links to Jakarta attack

It was a reference that may well have been linked to the attacks in Paris on November 13 when gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars, nearly simultaneously, killing 130 people dead and leaving hundreds wounded.

Then two militants outside the coffee shop seized two people – one of them a foreigner – dragged them into a parking lot and shot them, said Charliyan, the Jakarta police spokesman.

Dwiyono, who goes by one name, says the men are suspected militants and are being questioned over possible links to the attack Thursday that killed seven.

Islamic State said in its claim of responsibility that “a group of soldiers of the caliphate in Indonesia targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance that fights the Islamic State in Jakarta”.

IS and the war in Iraq and Syria have been a source of inspiration for violent jihadists in Indonesia, but Thursday’s attack was the first larger-scale effort claimed by the group in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said Indonesian national Bahrun Naim, who has been known to the authorities since at least 2010 and is now thought to be in Syria, had been “planning this for a while”.

The newspaper quoted Maj.

Gen. Anton Charliyan said: “They imitated the terror actions in Paris… they are likely from the (Islamic State) group”. The embassy will remain open for emergency services, it said in a statement on its website.

Perth man Barry Kissane was having a meeting in the high rise building above Starbucks, when he heard the Jakarta attacks start outside.

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

He says: “We believe there are no more attackers around Sarinah”.

Indonesia experienced several militant attacks in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on the holiday island of Bali that killed 202 people, majority tourists.

Jakarta is no stranger to terrorism, with the 2009 bombings of two hotels that killed seven people and injured more than 50.

But national intelligence agency chief Sutiyoso said there were no indications that ISIS militants were behind the attack, even though he said “this is definitely terrorism”.

“At the moment the situation is under control”, Jakarta police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said.

The number of those injured in the attack is now 26, according to the police.

“What we need to do today is strengthen capability and also sharing information with others because it is not home grown in Indonesia but it is part of a global network”, he said.

Jokowi, who was in the West Java town of Cirebon, said he was returning to Jakarta immediately.

At about the same time, two other suicide bombers struck a traffic police post nearby, killing an Indonesian man. Minutes later, a group of police were attacked by the remaining two gunmen, using homemade bombs, Karnavian said.

“The state, the nation and the people should not be afraid of, and lose to, such terror acts”, he said.