White House condemns attack in Jakarta

“A number of explosions were reported in central Jakarta on 14 January 2016”.

Seven people including two suicide bombers were killed and 20 others injured in suicide blasts in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, on Thursday. Jakarta police spokesman Col Muhammad Iqbal said seven people, including four attackers, have been killed in the attacks.

Depok area police chief Col. Dwiyono told MetroTV that the three men were arrested at dawn at their homes in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Charilyan said that the attacks could possibly be linked to an Indonesian faction that has sent volunteers to fight in Syria.

The explosions in front of the coffee shop injured several people, and the blast at the police post severely injured some policemen and killed the attackers, according to a policeman at the scene. One of the explosions occurred when two attackers blew themselves up after riding a motorcycle at a nearby police post.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the attacks on Jakarta highlight the importance of Australia and Indonesia working together to combat extremism, but added that Australia would not be raising the domestic terror alert level.

He said: “This is an indication that he has been learning from the Paris attacks and he has studied the strategy”.

It released a statement online saying it had been carried out by “soldiers of the Caliphate”, targeting “citizens of the Crusader coalition” against the group.

“There has been an expectation that an attack would take place in our part of the world at some time”, she said, promising that Australia would assist Indonesia with “whatever they need” to combat terrorism.

Jakarta police chief Maj.-Gen.

“The two dead civilians are Indonesian and Canadian”, he said.

While Indonesia has seen attacks by Islamist militants before, this was the first by co-ordinated assault by a team of suicide bombers and gunmen.

Supporters of the Islamic State group circulated a claim of responsibility on Twitter late Thursday.

Bahrun Naim is reportedly the South-East Asia leader of the network, who is believed to be in Syria, and had been hugely influenced by the Paris attacks past year.

“The hearts of Canada and Canadians go out to the people of Indonesia and all the families and victims of these awful attacks”, Mr. Trudeau said at an appearance in Kitchener, Ont.

IS gunmen killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks on the French capital in November.