Indonesia arrests 12 over Jakarta terrorist attacks

Indonesian police said they have arrested 12 people suspected of links to the Jakarta bombings, as the death toll rose to eight after a third civilian succumbed to injuries.

The assaults by suicide bombers and gunmen on Thursday targeted a Starbucks and traffic police post in bustling central Jakarta, leaving seven people dead – a police officer, a Canadian man and five of the attackers.

An Indonesian man who was shot in the head when two of the attackers fired into the crowd died at a hospital late on Saturday, bring the death toll up to eight.

The attack left more than 20 wounded, including a Dutch man who was critically injured who had been working for the UN’s environment programme.

It took security forces about three hours to end the siege near a Starbucks cafe and Sarinah’s, Jakarta’s oldest department store, after a team of about seven militants traded gunfire with police before blowing themselves up.

After the initial shootout two attackers appeared from behind a crowd. One then produced a handgun and shot an officer, while his accomplice fired on another. Both gunmen were shot dead shortly afterwards. Two more attackers died after blowing themselves up in the Starbucks car park. Bodies – of hostages and terrorists – lay in the street.

It was the first major assault by militants in Indonesia since 2009. Police said the attackers were tied to the Islamic State group through Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with Isis in Syria.

The national police chief, Gen Badrodin Haiti, told reporters the 12 arrests were made in west and east Java and in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island.

Elaborating on an earlier claim that the militants received funding from Bahrun, he said police had determined money was transferred to Indonesia via Western Union. He said that one of those arrested had received money transferred from IS.

Separately, authorities say they have blocked more than a dozen websites expressing support for Thursday’s attack as they try to counter radical Islamic ideology online.

Communications ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu urged Indonesians to report militant websites and social media accounts.

Indonesian police said the attackers had taken inspiration from November’s atrocity in Paris, which left 130 dead. But the terrorist cell that struck in Jakarta appeared to lack military training and inflicted comparatively little damage.

Jakarta’s police chief, Tito Karnavian, said an Indonesian national, Bahrun Naim, who is believed to be in Syria, was “planning this for a while. He is behind this attack”.

In recent years, Indonesian counter-terrorism forces successfully stamped out the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah that was responsible for several attacks, including the 2002 bombings of bars in Bali that killed 202 people, as well as two hotel bombings in Jakarta in 2009 that killed seven people.

Terrorism experts say Isis supporters in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah and other groups, but are also trying to recruit new members.

Police on Saturday also released the names of the eight killed.

Aside from the already identified Sunakin and Muhammad Ali, the additional attackers were identified as Ahmad Muhazan Saron, who exploded a suicide bomb inside the Starbucks, and Dian Joni Kurniadi. Police said they were still investigating the role of a fifth man known as Sugito. Their ages ranged from 25 to 43.

The civilian victims were Canadian Amer Quali Tahar and Jakarta residents Rico Hermawan and Rais Karna, who died on Saturday.