ISIL bombers and gunmen kill two in Jakarta

Assault confirms fears of extremist group extending reach to South-east Asia.

Indonesian police take position behind a vehicle after a series of blasts hit the Indonesia capital Jakarta on the morning of January 14, 2016. Bay Ismoyo / AFP

Jakarta // ISIL suicide bombers and gunmen struck the Indonesian capital on Thursday, killing two people and blowing up a Starbucks in an assault police said bore the hallmarks of the extremist group’s Paris attacks.

The assault on a district packed with malls, embassies and United Nations offices left an Indonesian man and a Canadian man dead and 20 others injured.

ISIL claimed responsibility, saying that the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the caliphate” who targeted a gathering of citizens from the “crusader coalition”, referring to the US-led alliance combating the exremists.

Jakarta police said the attack – which also destroyed a police post – was carried out by a network with links to ISIL in Syria and indicated Indonesian extremist, Bahrum Naim, who is thought to have joined the group, may have been involved in plotting it.

The assault confirmed Southeast Asian governments’ worst fears – that citizens returning from fighting alongside ISIL in the Middle East could launch attacks at home. Regional nations have been warning for months of the possibility of attack, mirroring concerns expressed by European authorities fearful of the intentions of people returning home from conflict.

Indonesian police said the five-strong cell that struck on Thursday included three suicide bombers who initially targeted a Starbucks near a shopping mall.

After the first explosion, men armed with pistols took two foreigners hostage – an Algerian and a Canadian.

National police spokesman Anton Charliyan said the Algerian managed to escape with bullet wounds, but the second man was shot dead on the spot.

“Soon afterwards, two men riding motorbikes ran into a police post and blew themselves up,” he said. Four officers had been left in a critical condition.

“From what we see today, this group is following the pattern of the Paris attacks,” he added, referring to a wave of killings on the streets of Paris in November that left 130 people dead.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, who held talks with the visiting Indonesian foreign minister Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, condemned the Jakarta attack as contrary to all human values and reiterated the UAE’s rejection of terrorism and keenness to intensify efforts to combat such acts.

The blasts and gunfire that rocked the Indonesian capital came after six years of relative calm following a government crackdown that weakened the country’s most dangerous homegrown extremist networks.

Witnesses described a gunman emerging from Starbucks who began firing at bystanders and reloading his weapon as security forces approached, taking cover behind vehicles.

“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 in 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.”

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 centre of the street while a fourth lay nearby.

Jakarta police chief Tito 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 hours-long assault ended.

Starbucks said it was closing all branches in the Indonesian capital until further notice “out of an abundance of caution” after the attack.

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 UN Environment Programme said a married Dutch employee had been seriously hurt in the attacks and remained in a critical condition.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo urged people to remain calm. “Our nation and our people should not be afraid, we will not be defeated by these acts of terror,” he said.

The US secretary of state John Kerry said ISIL was merely inviting “its own destruction” by carrying out such attacks.

“There is nothing in any act of terror that offers anything but death and destruction. And so we stand together, all of us, united in our efforts to eliminate those who choose terror,” Mr Kerry during a break in talks in London with the Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir.

Mr Al Jubeir also condemned the attack, saying: “If anything, it should strengthen our resolve to work effectively together to combat the scourge of terrorism.”

Indonesia suffered several major bomb attacks by extremits 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, and there had been no major attacks since 2009, when several foreigners were killed in suicide bombing attacks on luxury Jakarta hotels.

But the New York-based Soufan Group says that of the 500-700 Indonesians who travelled abroad to join the self-proclaimed caliphate of the ISIL, scores have since returned.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting from Wam and Reuters