Bombs, gunfire rock Jakarta

AFP | January 15, 2016

Jakarta – Islamic State-linked suicide attackers struck at the heart of the capital of Muslim-majority Indonesia yesterday, executing a Westerner and blowing up a Starbucks, police said.

Five extremists launched an assault copying “the pattern of the Paris 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 19 other people injured, and a police post destroyed, in what the country’s president dubbed “acts of terror.”

“There is a strong suspicion that this is an ISIS-linked group in Indonesia,” national police spokesman Anton Charliyan told AFP, referring to the Islamic State group by an alternative name.

“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.

The claim of IS involvement will send a chill through Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia with Muslim populations, where fears abound that extremists bloodied on the battlefields of the Middle East could have brought their jihad home.

Indonesia suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 strike on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people.

A security crackdown weakened the most dangerous networks, leading to a long lull in large-scale strikes.

But 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.

“We know that ISIS has the desire to declare a province in this region,” said Kumar Ramakrishna, a counter-terrorism analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“The threat of returning Southeast Asian fighters radicalized in the Iraq/Syria region are also another factor of concern.”

Gunfire

Police chief Charliyan said the five-strong cell who struck yesterday included three suicide bombers who initially targeted a Starbucks opposite a major shopping mall.

After the first explosion, two men armed with pistols took two men hostage. He identified them as an Algerian and a Dutch national, however Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian said the second man was Canadian.

Charliyan said the Algerian managed to escape with bullet wounds, but the second man was shot dead on the spot and that 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 critical condition.

Witnesses said the gunman who emerged from Starbucks began firing at bystanders, reloading his weapon as security forces moved in behind the cover of moving vehicles.

 ‘Felt like an earthquake’

 “I heard a loud bang, boom. It felt like an earthquake. We all went downstairs,” said Ruli Koestaman, 32, who had been in a nearby building when the attack started mid-morning.

“We then saw that the Starbucks downstairs was destroyed too. I saw a foreigner – westerner, a man – with a mangled hand but alive.

“A Starbucks waiter then ran out with blood coming out of his ear. And I asked anyone hurt inside, he said yes, one. Dead already.

“Then everybody gathered and a terrorist appeared. He had a gun and started shooting at us and then at Starbucks. Then the police post… exploded.”

Police said there were four blasts, although eyewitnesses reported at least six.

Graphic photographs from the scene showed the bloodied bodies of what appeared to be two men in civilian clothes lying by the side of a road next to the wrecked police post.

Another body, also apparently male, was pictured lying on his back in the center of the street while another, almost naked, lay nearby.

Starbucks shuttered

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.

Britain and Australia advised their nationals to avoid the area.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo urged people to remain calm.

Source: www.thephilippinestar.ph