BANDUNG, INDONESIA // Indonesian police shot dead a suspected militant in the West Java capital of Bandung on Monday after his bomb exploded in a vacant lot and he fled into a municipal building and set it alight.
No one apart from the attacker was hurt in the incident, which police said was linked to a “terrorist network”.
National police chief Tito Karnavian said the man was a member of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah, which was designated a terrorist organisation by the US in January. Members of the militant group have contacts with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with ISIL in Syria who has instigated several attacks by JAD in Indonesia.
It was the latest assault in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, where there has been a surge in attacks and plots linked to ISIL.
After the blast about 8.30am, which witnesses said came from a bomb made from a pressure cooker, the attacker fled into a building belonging to local authorities.
Police exchanged fire with the man inside and part of the building was set ablaze during the hour-long standoff.
West Java police spokesman Yusri Yunus said the man, in his 30s or 40s, was shot in the stomach and later died.
“We tried to negotiate but instead the perpetrator tried to burn the place,” police chief Anton Charliyan told local media. “He’s from a terrorist network.”
Mr Charliyan said police seized guns and two backpacks carried by the attacker, without saying what they contained.
It was not clear if more than one attacker was involved.
Attacks and failed plots have been linked to ISIL supporters in Indonesia in recent years.
An attack in January 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, killed eight people, including four attackers. Other recent attacks have killed only the perpetrators or been foiled by counterterrorism police, including a December plot to bomb a guard-changing ceremony at the presidential palace and a plan to fire a rocket at Singapore from an Indonesian island.
Analysts say many Indonesian militants lack the capacity to launch a serious attack.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse