Extremist violence

At least 13 killed in suicide bombings by couple with children in tow

Family of suicide bombers attacks three churches in Indonesia. At least 13 people are killed and dozens injured.

JAKARTA: Bombings at three churches in Surabaya in Indonesia’s East Java province have left at least 13 people dead, with the attacks carried out by a family of suicide bombers, according to police.

The attacks took place during mass yesterday at the Santa Maria Church in the Ngagel Madya area of Indonesia’s second-largest and busiest city, the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church and the GKI Diponegoro Church.

East Java provincial police spokesman Colonel Frans Barung Mangera said 41 injured victims had been sent to hospital.

Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks, the group’s Amaq news agency said without providing any evidence.

“Three martyrdom attacks inflicted at least 11 deaths and 41 injuries of the churches’ guards and Christians in the city of Surabaya in East Java province in Indonesia,” it said.

Police chief General Tito Karnavian said IS-affiliated terror network Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) was behind the attacks and that all of the bombers were members of the same family.

JAD first became known to Indonesian intelligence agencies in 2015, when nearly 24 extremist groups pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A source told The Straits Times that the family was JAD founder

Aman Abdurrahman’s sleeping cell.

Gen Tito said two brothers, aged 15 and 17, carried out the first bombing at the Santa Maria Church. They were on a motorcycle and carried the bomb on their lap.

The second bombing at the GKI Diponegoro Church was carried out by the mother, who had a belt bomb and was accompanied by her two daughters, aged nine and 12.

This was the first-ever suicide bombing by a woman in Indonesia.

Their father, who was in a car, staged the third bombing at Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church.

A planned attack on a fourth church, Cathedral Church, was foiled with the arrest of a suspect.

A police bomb squad also safely detonated an unexploded bomb found at the Surabaya Centre

Pentecostal Church.

President Joko Widodo condemned the attacks as “barbaric”, noting the use of children to facilitate one of the attacks. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network

— AP Probe in progress: Strings of thread placed by police officers to determine the trajectory of the explosion outside one of the targeted churches in Surabaya.

— Reuters Scene of the crime: Joko (right) inspecting the site of one of the blasts in Surabaya.

— AFP High alert: Policemen standing guard outside a church in Banda Aceh following the attacks.