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Terror attacks in Jakarta -- 7 die so far
Battles continue.Militants launched a gun and bomb assault killing at least six people in the centre of the Indonesian capital on Thursday, police said, in an attack that followed a threat by Islamic State fighters to put the country in their "spotlight". Media said six bombs went off and a Reuters witness saw three dead people and a gunfight going on. One blast was in a Starbucks cafe and security forces were later seen entering the building. Police said they suspected a suicide bomber was responsible for at least one of the blasts and up to 14 militant gunmen were involved in the attack, Metro TV reported.
Five extremists launched what police said were Paris-style attacks as they detonated explosives and shot at people in a district packed with malls, embassies and United Nations offices. The assault also left an Indonesian man dead and 20 other people injured, and a police post destroyed, in what the country's president called "acts of terror". "Their network has links to ISIS in Raqqa," said Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian, referring to the IS group's stronghold in Syria. The claim of IS involvement will send a chill through Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia with Muslim populations, where there are fears extremists bloodied on Middle Eastern battlefields could have brought their jihad home. Police said the five-strong cell who struck Thursday included three suicide bombers who initially targeted a Starbucks near a major shopping mall. After the first explosion, men armed with pistols took two men hostage. Police identified them as an Algerian and a Westerner, although there were conflicting reports about whether he was Canadian or Dutch. National police spokesman Anton Charliyan said the Algerian managed to escape with bullet wounds, but the second man was shot dead on the spot, while an Indonesian man who had tried to help the hostages was also shot and killed. "Soon afterwards, two men riding.... motorbikes, ran into a police post and blew themselves up," he said, adding four officers had been left in a critical condition. "From what we see today, this group is following the pattern of the Paris attacks." IS gunmen killed 130 people in a series of coordinated attacks on the French capital in November.
Jakarta police chief Karnavian said bombs containing screws and nails were hurled at police during the shootout, and they found six bombs planted in the area after the assault had ended. Starbucks said it was shuttering all branches in the Indonesian capital in response to the attack. "This store and all other Starbucks stores in Jakarta will remain closed, out of an abundance of caution, until further notice," a statement said. The area is home to several embassies, including those of the United States, France and Spain. A number of United Nations agencies are also housed nearby. The U.N. Environment Program said a married Dutch employee had been seriously hurt in the attacks and remained in a critical condition. The New York-based Soufan Group says that of the 500-700 Indonesians who traveled abroad to join the self-proclaimed caliphate of the IS, scores have since returned.
"The threat of returning Southeast Asian fighters radicalized in the Iraq/Syria region (is) another factor of concern." An-IS linked news agency, citing an unidentified source, said that the attack was carried out by IS fighters but there was no immediate claim of responsibility from the group itself. Regional terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said the assault bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. "The only group that has the capability and the intention to mount coordinated, simultaneous attacks in Jakarta is the ISIS network," he told AFP in Singapore.
Posted by: lord garth 2016-01-14 |
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