Indonesia Police Arrest Terrorists Before Planned Attack

Indonesian police thwart alleged terror attack against presidential palace.

Jakarta, 11 Rabi’ul Awwal 1438/11 December 2016 (MINA) – Indonesia’s counterterrorism unit on Saturday, December 10, arrested 3 suspected terrorists who were planning to perform bombings. The 3 included 2 men and a woman.

The Head of Public Relations for Metro Police, Argo Yuwono said the woman was a suicide bomber.

“The plan was to detonate bombs at the Presidential Palace,” Rappler.com quoted Yuwono as saying in a written statement on Saturday.

The bombing would have likely been conducted on Sunday morning, December 11, during the changing of the guards in front of the Palace.

Yuwono said the arrest of the 3 is a culmination of several days of surveillance.

“Members of the Anti-Terror Detachment trailed the trio from Solo to Jakarta by tracking the car [of one of the men],” he said.

The car then picked up the woman from Pondok Kopi, which is east of Jakarta.

The police later raided a boarding house in Bekasi, right outside Jakarta where the 3 were tracked to have gathered. The arrests were made before 6 pm.

Yuwono said an active bomb was found stored in a backpack in the boarding house. They also found high explosives in a rice cooker.

Bekasi police chief, Pol Umar Surya Fana said the 3 suspected terrorists are part of the network of Bahrun Naim.

Naim is believed to be behind the terrorist attacks that hit Jakarta in January – the first ISIS attack in Asia at the time.

Naim is an Indonesian who is said to have left the country for Syria and is still based there, fighting with ISIS. However he has been linked to funding several terror attempts in Indonesia from there. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)