UN Secretary-General condemns terrorist attack in Jakarta

Police have yet to reveal the identities of the five terrorists who were shot dead in yesterday’s incident, but police are confident of their links to the Daesh militant network.

In this Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 photo, students light candles during a solidarity for those affected by a deadly attack in Jakarta, during a vigil in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. Indonesians were shaken but refusing to be cowed a day aft…

The attacks were claimed by the ISIL group in a statement on Thursday, in which the group claimed it had killed 15 people.

Supporters of the Islamic State group circulated a claim of responsibility on social media resembling the militants’ previous messages.

The first attack by the radical group in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, poses a grave challenge to the country’s security forces.

On Friday, police also named one of the five attackers who died in the assault that killed two people and wounded 24 more. The attackers were killed subsequently, either by their suicide vests or by police.

“We found some IS flags in one of the suspects’ house, so we can ensure that the blast is linked with the Islamic State”, he said at the national police headquarters. He did not elaborate.

An Indonesian and a Canadian were killed in the attack along with the five attackers.

No other details of the raid were immediately available. They also outlined a partial reconstruction of events based on security camera video, part of which showed a Starbucks customer escaping from the grip of a bomber before he detonated his suicide bomb. “There has been a lull in the shooting but someone is on the roof of the building and police are aiming their guns at him”, Reuters photographer Darren Whiteside said as the attack unfolded.

Rappler Indonesia Bureau Chief Natashya Gutierrez reports from Jakarta from ground zero.

JAKARTA, Indonesia-Three people were arrested in connection with Thursday’s deadly terror attacks in Jakarta, a police detective involved in the operation told The Wall Street Journal. On Friday evening, police searched the home of another of the dead bombers whom they identified as Muhammad Ali.

The detainees included a man who said he had been instructed by Bahrum Naim, an Indonesian now believed to be with IS in Syria.

He said the embassy was “prepared for the worst scenario” and has provided a hotline to provide support.

Indonesia’s Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said terror group Islamic State (IS) was the perpetrator of the suicide bombing in Jakarta on Thursday that killed seven people and injured 20 others.

Terrorism experts say IS supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah and other groups.

Starbucks, which has some 230 outlets across the archipelago, closed its stores in central Jakarta on Thursday afternoon after explosions and gunfire erupted mid-morning near the Sarinah shopping center on one of the city’s main streets.

Some people left flowers near the traffic police post that was attacked along with a wreath that read “Deep condolences. We talked a lot about Aceh and Papua for two or three hours”, Fadli said, highlighting the immediate priorities of Indonesia’s security and law enforcement. “Indonesia is a strong state, it will not be provoked by terrorism”.