By Muktita Suhartono and Rukmini Callimachi
BANDUNG,
Indonesia — One suicide bomber appeared to have been disguised as a
churchgoer. Another drove a Toyota minivan with a bomb to one attack
site. Still another was seen in footage speeding on a scooter toward a
church before an explosion.
After the
back-to-back bombings that targeted three churches in Surabaya,
Indonesia’s second-largest city, as worshipers gathered between services
on Sunday morning, the police said they had been the work of one
family: a couple who had led their four children on a terror spree that
took their own lives and those of at least seven other people.
The
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to the
group’s news agency, Amaq. In an initial bulletin, the group described
each of the bombings as a “martyrdom” operation. In a subsequent, longer
media release, the Islamic State identified three modes of attack: a
car bomb, a suicide vest and a motorcycle-borne bomb.
The police now say that there have been at least two more bomb blasts beyond the assaults on the churches.
Advertisement
In
the suburb of Sidoarjo, south of Surabaya in East Java, a man detonated
an explosive in his apartment as the police closed in on Sunday night,
killing himself, his wife and one of his children, and injuring another
three children, said a spokesman for the provincial police, Frans Barung
Mangera. He identified the killed suspect as Anton Ferdiantono, 46.
And
in a new attack, on Monday morning, a team of bombers on a motorcycle
detonated explosives at a checkpoint outside the city police
headquarters in Surabaya.
Mr.
Frans, the police spokesman, said in a live television briefing that
there were 10 “victims” of that bombing, without detailing the number of
dead or injured. A video released by an Indonesian news outlet showed
what appeared to be a motorcycle with two people on it at the center of
the blast, flattening police officers and another nearby motorcycle with
two people on it, and damaging a car beside it.
The police said they had raided another housing complex in the area and recovered at least six complete bombs.
Sunday’s church bombings occurred one day after a man in Paris who shouted, “God is great” in Arabic killed one person with a knife and wounded four others.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. A day later,
the group’s news agency released a cellphone video of the attacker
pledging allegiance to the Islamic State and calling on fellow Islamic
State supporters in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere
too carry out attacks.
At
least 43 other people were wounded in the church bombings, Mr. Frans
said. He added that the bombs had been detonated in different parts of
the city within minutes of one another. The victims included two police
officers and worshipers who were entering and leaving the churches
between services, he added.
At a news
conference later on Sunday, Indonesia’s police chief, Tito Karnavian,
said the family suspected in the attacks had recently returned from
Syria: “Five hundred people were deported from Syria; among them is this
family.”
He
identified the attackers as Dita Oepriarto and his wife, Puji Kuswati.
The police chief said that two of their sons, ages 18 and 16, had also
been involved. Two younger children were also seen in the company of the
woman at one bombing site, the police said.
Footage
posted on YouTube shows what appears to be one of the attackers on a
scooter suddenly turning off a street and heading toward a church before
a bomb goes off.
The
police said the father, driving a Toyota minivan, had dropped off the
mother and two children, ages 12 and 9, at the Indonesia Christian
Church. There, according to Kumparan News, an online news site that
quoted the deputy police chief of Surabaya, the woman tried to force her
way into the church after being stopped by a security guard.
She
then detonated the bomb in the yard outside the entrance, killing
herself and the two children, the deputy police chief said.
At
another target, Santa Maria Church, the sons detonated the explosives,
the police chief said. Photos from the site showed several people lying
on the ground outside the church gate. Other images showed scattered
debris and the police cordoning off the site.
The
father was behind the wheel of the vehicle that crashed into Surabaya
Center Pentecostal Church, detonating a bomb believed to have been in
the vehicle, the police said. The couple, along with all four children,
died in the explosions, the police said.
The police later disabled three bombs at the home of the suspects, officials in Surabaya said.
Surabaya,
located on the eastern side of the island of Java, has a significant
Christian minority that is about 11 percent of the city’s population of
almost three million. The bombings occurred as professed followers of
the Islamic State have begun to make their presence felt in Indonesia, a
Muslim-majority nation that is proud of its diversity and tolerance.
In
2016, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed its first attack
in Southeast Asia, when militants attacked a police post and shopping
center in central Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, with homemade guns
and bombs.
This month, inmates who said they were followers of the Islamic State rioted in a high-security detention center outside Jakarta. Five guards were killed before counterterrorism officers stormed the compound.
Churches
have also been targeted by other extremists. On Christmas Eve in 2000,
nearly simultaneous attacks on churches in Jakarta and several other
cities killed about 20 people. A local group with links to Al Qaeda
claimed credit.
The
suicide bombings here and the knife attack in France came days before
the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a time of prayer for the
majority of the world’s Muslims and a period when groups like ISIS
typically intensify and multiply attacks.
Analysts
have been waiting for the start of Ramadan, which begins on Tuesday, to
assess the Islamic State’s capabilities. They argue that if the group
is able to carry out significant attacks, as it did during Ramadan over
the previous three years, it would indicate that the group remained a
potent threat, despite its territorial losses.
On
Sunday evening, hundreds of people gathered at the Heroes Monument in
Surabaya to mourn the bombing victims, and officials announced that
public schools in the city would be closed on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment