Militants shot dead in Jakarta
THREE suspected militants have been killed by Indonesian police in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta, and officers found several bombs, which they are trying to defuse.
National Police spokesman Rikwanto said the residential neighbourhood had been evacuated. He said one person was arrested in the raid.
Police believe those involved in the plot are linked to several militants arrested on December 10 in another area on the outskirts of Jakarta who were planning a suicide bomb attack on a guard-changing ceremony at the presidential palace the next day.
The men who were killed had been planning a holiday season suicide bombing, Jakarta police chief Mochamad Iriawan said. They planned to stage an attack on Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve, he said. They were to stab police officers to attract a crowd and then detonate bombs, he said.
The three men were killed in a gun battle with the police’s anti-terror squad after refusing an appeal from authorities to surrender and come out of the house in a leafy residential compound in Tangerang, a Jakarta satellite city.
Rikwanto said the men threw explosives and fired guns at police. A fourth man, who was arrested in the neighbourhood, had led police to the house.