Explosions and gunfire rock Indonesia’s capital

Asia-Pacific, News January 14, 2016 , by IRIA No Comments

At least seven killed, including five suspected attackers, in Indonesian capital, as police declare end of operations.

JAKARTA, (Indonesia) – Indonesian security forces have arrested three suspected terrorists linked to the bomb blast in Jakarta, Indonesia, that killed two and wounded 26 people.

A series of explosions and gunfire broke out in central Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital on Thursday, killing at least seven people, including five suspected attackers.

Twenty people, including an Algerian, an Austrian, a German and a Dutch national, were wounded. The chief of the UN Environment Program confirmed a Dutch man seriously injured in the attack is “fighting for his life” and undergoing surgery.

All six blasts occurred about 50 metres apart in the central business district. Two civilians, a Canadian and an Indonesian, were killed, the authorities said. Senior officials say at least five attackers are dead.

This is the first mass attack in Jakarta since the twin bombings of two hotels in 2009. The police said the perpetrators were “imitating” November’s Isis attacks in Paris.

ISIS took responsibility for the attack in a statement released on its official Telegram channel, an encrypted phone app.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said that the state and the people should not be afraid linked bomb blasts at MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

“We should not be afraid and defeated by acts of terror like this and I will soon return to Jakarta, ” President Jokowi said, on his working visit to Cirebon and Majalengka, West Java.

Jokowi has asked the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, in coordination with the security forces to immediately arrest the perpetrators and the entire network of the bombing.