Gun battle militants in revenge attack plan

SIX ISLAMIC militant suspects killed in a stand-off with police were planning to attack officers in Indonesia’s East Java province in revenge for the arrest of a radical leader, authorities have said.

The men were cornered in a village in Tuban district on Saturday after attempting to shoot a traffic officer who approached their car which was stationary at the roadside, national police spokesman Rikwanto said.

The six refused appeals to surrender during a stand-off that lasted several hours and were shot dead by police, said Rikwanto, who goes by a single name.

On Friday, anti-terror police arrested three suspected militants who were allegedly planning to attack a police station in East Java.

Among those arrested was Zainal Anshori, a senior figure of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, an umbrella group of Indonesian extremists that claims allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.

Rikwanto said Anshori had orchestrated Saturday’s planned attack. “They had acted on Anshori’s order as a revenge of his arrest,” he said, citing police interrogation of other arrested militants.

Police said they seized dozens of rounds of ammunition, several firearms, knives, jihadi books and a car used by the men.

Muslim-majority Indonesia has carried out a sustained crackdown on militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by al Qaida-affiliated radicals that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

A new threat has emerged in the past several years from IS sympathisers.