Blast at Indonesia Police HQ, 1 dead

Two bike-borne militants blew themselves up at an Indonesian police headquarters in Surabaya city on Monday claiming at least one personnel, media reports said.

The attack at the Surabaya Police headquarters came just a few hours after a bomb prematurely went off in Sidoarjo, East Java, late on Sunday and bomb attacks on three churches in the city earlier in the day.

   

East Java Police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera confirmed the attack on the police headquarters, the Jakarta Post reported. However, he did not give any information on the injuries or damages in the attack. 

A wave of suicide bombings on churches killed at least 13 and injured 40 on Sunday.

Citing CCTV footage from the scene, Mangera said a man and a woman on the bike stopped at the security checkpoint.

“That’s where the explosion happened,” he added. “Two people were riding (on the motorcycle) and a woman was sitting at the back.”

This follows three Surabaya churches during Sunday services by a family of six, including two young daughters. The Islamic State (IS) terror group claimed responsibility.

The family had returned from Syria, police said. National police chief Tito Karnavian said they belonged to an IS-inspired network, Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).

The bombings at the three churches were Indonesia’s deadliest for years, as the Muslim-majority country grappled with homegrown militancy and rising intolerance towards religious minorities, the Jakarta Post reported.

A further three people were killed and two wounded when another bomb exploded at an apartment complex in the same city, the second biggest, just hours after the church bombings, police said. 

The East Java Police have found a connection between the church bombings and Sidoarjo bombing. “Similar types of explosives were used,” Mangera said.

Both the Surabaya church bombings and Sidoarjo bomb explosion also involved family members, he added.

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