Indonesia church bomb: explosives found in raids

Jakarta

IN A series of raids, Indonesian police discovered powerful explosives and arrested more suspected Islamist militants on Monday, a day after a suicide attack outside a cathedral on the first day of the Easter Holy Week.

The two bombers were the only fatalities in Sunday's attack in the city of Makassar on Sulawesi island. Nineteen people were wounded in the attack, which happened as a mass was finishing.

Police said the bombers were a married couple who belonged to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Islamic State-inspired group suspected of suicide attacks on churches and a police post that killed at least 30 people in the city of Surabaya in 2018.

National police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said 13 people in Greater Jakarta, West Nusa Tenggara and Makassar had been arrested since the attack; they had varying roles in its execution, from making the explosives to detonating them.

Mr Listyo said 5.5 kg of explosives and several ingredients from the raids, including triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a powerful but unstable mixture often used by Islamist militant groups.

Mr Listyo told reporters that the male bomber wrote a letter to family expressing his intentions to die for his belief.

About 20 suspected JAD members were arrested in January. The authorities believe the group was involved in the twin suicide attack on a Philippine church in 2019, which left more than 20 people dead and more than 100 wounded.

Makassar, the biggest city on Sulawesi island, reflects the religious makeup of Indonesia, which is the world's largest Muslim-majority country. It has a substantial Christian minority, among other faiths. REUTERS