IS supporter stabs three cops in Jakarta

JAKARTA: A suspected supporter of Islamic State (IS) stabbed and wounded three policemen yesterday in what appeared to be the latest violence inspired by the militant group in Indonesia.

The man also threw a pipe bomb which failed to explode during the rush hour attack in Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, police said.

He was shot and died of his wounds, a police spokesman said, while the three victims were being treated in hospital.

A second pipe bomb and an IS sticker were found at the scene, police said.

Authorities are increasingly worried about a resurgence in radicalism in Indonesia, driven in part by a new generation of militants inspired by IS.

“Two of (the police) were stabbed in the arm and chest. Then the attacker walked around showing off his weapon, walking to the police post and shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greatest),” Mohammad Isa Ansori, deputy police chief of Tangerang district, said.

The attacker, who was born in 1994 and unemployed, was believed to be a member of Indonesian militant group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, which supports IS.

The umbrella organisation, formed last year through an alliance of splinter groups backing IS, is led by jailed Islamist cleric Aman Abdurrahman.

Yesterday’s assault comes after a series of IS-linked attacks beginning in January when four militants mounted a gun and bomb attack in Jakarta which killed eight.

Two of those involved in that attack was sentenced yesterday. Dodi Suridi, 23, was jailed for 10 years for helping to make a bomb used in the attack, while Ali Hamka, 48, was given four years for trying to find weapons to use in the assault. – Agencies