Daesh attacks in Paris and Indonesia rattle world
surabaya/paris — Two attacks in a span of 24 hours woke us up to the reality of the continuing threat posed by Daesh-inspired terrorists to peaceful life in cities of Asia and Europe.
In Paris, an attacker, who was a naturalised Frenchman born in Russia’s Chechnya region, went on a stabbing spree on Saturday night, killing a 29-year-old man and wounding many, before police shot him dead, officials said.
The attack took place in the busy Opera district known for its many restaurants, cafes and the Palais Garnier opera.
In Indonesia’s second largest city of Surabaya, a family of six launched suicide attacks on Christians attending Sunday services at three churches, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, officials said. “The husband drove the car, an Avanza, that contained explosives and rammed it into the gate in front of that church,” police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks, in a message carried on its Amaq news agency. —
Afamily of six launched suicide attacks on Christians attending Sunday services at three churches in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, officials said.
Indonesia has seen a recent resurgence in homegrown militancy and police said the family who carried out Sunday’s attacks were among 500 Daesh sympathisers who had returned from Syria.
“The husband drove the car, an Avanza, that contained explosives and rammed it into the gate in front of that church,” East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera told reporters at the regional police headquarters in Surabaya.
The wife and two daughters were involved in an attack on a second church and at the third church “two other children rode the motorbike and had the bomb across their laps”, Mangera said. The two daughters were aged 12 and 9 while the other two, thought to be the man’s sons, were 18 and 16, police said.
They blamed the bombings on the Daesh-inspired group Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).
JAD is an umbrella organisation on a US State Department “terrorist” list that is estimated to have drawn hundreds of Daesh sympathisers in Indonesia.
Daesh claimed responsibility for the attacks, in a message carried on its Amaq news agency.
“This act is barbaric and beyond the limits of humanity, causing victims among members of society, the police and even innocent children,” President Joko Widodo said during a visit to the scene of the attacks.
East Java police spokesman Mangera said the attacks had killed at least 13 people and 40 had been taken to hospital, including two police officers. He called on people to remain calm.
Streets around the bombed churches were blocked by checkpoints and heavily armed police stood guard as forensic and bomb squad officers combined the area for clues. Television footage showed one church where the yard in front appeared engulfed in fire, with thick, black smoke billowing up.
A large blast was heard hours after the attacks, which Mangera said was a bomb disposal squad dealing with a device.
The attacks come days after militant prisoners killed five members of an elite counter-terrorism force during a 36-hour standoff at a high security jail on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.
The church attacks were likely linked to the prison hostage standoff, said Wawan Purwanto, communication director at Indonesia’s intelligence agency.
At St Mary’s catholic church, the first place of worship to be attacked, the bombing happened after an earlier mass was over and when the church was getting ready to hold another service. —
Suicide attacks on churches are barbaric and beyond the limits of humanity. I have instructed police to look into it and break up networks of perpetrators
Joko Widodo, Indonesia President
These attacks on peaceful worshipers are an affront to the tolerance embraced by Indonesians. The US government stands with the people of Indonesia.
US embassy, Jakarta