Indonesia foils IS attack plot on foreign mission
Jakarta: Anti-terror squad of the Indonesian Police has seized explosive materials, which will be used to explode foreign embassy offices and religious facilities, in a hideout of a member of Islamic States (IS) in West Java province, Police said last Friday. Rio Priatna Wibawa, 23, was nabbed at his house in Majalengka of the province on Wednesday and admitted that he was ordered to make bombs from the materials, said Rikwanto, a Police spokesperson. The spokesperson revealed that the targets of the militants were buildings or facilities owned by foreign nations. “These explosive materials will be used to strike foreign embassy offices, religious buildings, Police headquarters and the parliament building,” Rikwanto said at the national Police headquarters. The spokesperson said Priatna along with three fellow IS members, who remain at large, planed to make bombs at “a chemistry laboratory” at his house. “He was arrested by the anti-terror squad before producing the bombs and giving it to other IS militants,” Rikwanto said.
The official confirmed that Priatna and other IS militants operate with the coordination of a high-profile IS leader for Southeast Asia region, Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian national who leads terrorist operation from Syria. Indonesia has been included in IS global targets as the top leader of the terrorist group has ordered militants to launch strikes in their own countries following an offensive move against the base of the group in Mosul of Iraq, according to the Police. The Indonesian security authority has been monitoring the movement of more than 50 militants who have just backed home after joining IS in Iraq and Syria, the Police said. IS members have conducted a series of small-scale suicide bombing strikes in Indonesia in recent months, targeting churches, westerners and facilities, and Police, causing scores of casualties. Xinhua