JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia must strengthen its defences against Islamic State and work with neighbouring countries to fight it, Jakarta’s police chief said on Friday, a day after an attack by suicide bombers and gunmen in the heart of the Southeast Asian nation’s capital.
Just seven people were killed in the three-hour siege near a busy shopping despite multiple blasts and a gunfight, and five of them were the attackers themselves.
Nevertheless, it was the first time the radical group has targeted the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and the brazenness of the attack suggested a new brand of militancy in a country where low-level strikes on police are common.
Police chiefs across the country were put on high alert, and security was stepped up on the resort island of Bali, a draw for tourists from Australia and other Asian countries.
“We need to pay very serious attention to the rise of ISIS,” Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters outside the city’s oldest department store, Sarinah, where the attack unfolded on Thursday.
“We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them … and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not home-grown terrorism, it is part of the ISIS network,” he said, using a common acronym for the Syria-based group.
Experts agree that there is a growing threat from radicalised Muslims inspired by Islamic State, some of whom may have fought with the group in Syria. However, they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude.
An Indonesian and a man of dual Canadian-Algerian nationality were killed. Twenty-four people were seriously wounded, including an Austrian, German and a Dutchman.
Islamic State said in its claim of responsibility that “a group of soldiers of the caliphate in Indonesia targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance that fights the Islamic State in Jakarta”.
Karnavian confirmed that Islamic State was responsible and named an Indonesian militant, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind.
Police believe Naim leads a militant network known as Katibah Nusantar and is pulling strings from the Syrian city of Raqqa.
“We were informed by intelligence that an individual named Bahrun Naim … instructed his cells in Indonesia to mount an attack,” Karnavian said. “His vision is to unite all ISIS supporting elements in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.”
Islamist militants from those three countries have a record of working together and several Malaysians are known to have carried out suicide attacks in the Middle East.
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