Re: The moment suicide bomber blew himself up in Jakarta caught in video!
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/attackers-set-off-bombs/2425526.html
Attackers set off bombs, open fire in Jakarta
Seven people, including five suspected IS-linked militants were killed in a deadly "Paris-style" attack in Jakarta on Thursday (Jan 14), stirring Southeast Asian governments' worst fears - that citizens returning from fighting alongside IS in the Middle East, could launch attacks at home.
By Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia
Posted 14 Jan 2016 18:50 Updated 14 Jan 2016 23:50
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JAKARTA: Multiple explosions and gunshots rang out just after 10.30am local time in the Indonesian capital on Thursday (Jan 14) along the busy Jalan Thamrin thoroughfare. After a five-hour operation involving armed security forces and reports of explosions and gunfire, Indonesian authorities declared that the attack was over and they had taken control of the situation.
The attacks left five attackers and two civilians, including a Westerner, dead and 19 others wounded.
Mr Manfred Stoifl, an Austrian national, based in Singapore is among those injured. The managing director of the Hearing Solution Company, told Channel NewsAsia he was in Jakarta for a business trip.
"STARBUCKS WAS BASICALLY GONE"
"I was in Starbucks. So I was actually sitting there," he said. "And there was suddenly a loud, big flash and a loud bang. By the time I was conscious again, I looked around and Starbucks was basically gone, and there was just a few people still there.
"And then I staggered out, towards the window. Then there was a second explosion somewhere. And I climbed out the window where some Indonesian passers-by, some normal people, helped me. And a car stopped - a car which was passing by - they stopped and they took us two of injured people, me and somebody else, to a nearest hospital.
"I've burns on my arms and my face. I actually have two screws in my arms. They gave me some painkillers, they dressed my wounds. It soothes the lacerations. I had two very, very big cuts."
ATTACKERS HAD "DESIRE TO GENERATE MASS CASUALTIES"
Dr Kumar Ramakrishna, the head of Policy Studies at the Sr Rajaratnam School of International Studies said the Sarinah Mall appeared to be the initial target. "A group of men, with backpacks apparently, they wanted to get into Sarinah mall, they couldn't so they were brought outside and they detonated outside a police station which was nearby the mall. But the point is that public spaces were the target which suggest an attempt, a desire to generate mass casualties."
A news agency allied to the Islamic State (IS) group has said that the group carried out the attacks.
"Islamic State fighters carried out an armed attack this morning targeting foreign nationals and the security forces charged with protecting them in the Indonesian capital," said the Aamaaq news agency on its Telegram channel.
Indonesian workers run as they are evacuated from their office at Thamrin business district in Jakarta Jan 14, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/Beawiharta)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the site with Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama after the scene was secured.
"I extend my condolences to those killed in today's acts of terror. We will chase, we will catch and we will punish those involved, as well as the mastermind", he tweeted.
Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has said that authorities are working to identify those behind the Jakarta blasts. "The country will not fall to such acts of terror."
National police spokesman Anton Charliyan told AFP that authorities had a "strong suspicion" an IS-linked group carried out the assault and that it was designed to replicate the November strike on Paris that claimed 130 lives.
Regional leaders have condemned the attacks.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore condemns the attacks. "We will give our full support to the Indonesian government to bring the perpetrators to justice," he wrote on Facebook. He also tweeted, “I am confident Indonesian govt will deal with situation decisively.”
Thailand and Malaysia have also expressed their support. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he is "deeply shocked and saddened" by the attacks, while Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said that Thailand is ready to support Indonesia "in any possible way".
Police and medics are seen near bodies at the scene of an explosion next to a police box in central Jakarta Jan 14, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/Darren Whiteside)
The strike was launched just weeks after Indonesia issued a heightened alert and arrested several suspected militants, some of them from IS-linked cells. The blasts and gunfire also come after six years of relative calm, following a government crackdown that weakened the country's most dangerous homegrown Islamic networks.
A member of the police bomb squad unit approaches the scene of an explosion following an attack on a police box in central Jakarta, Jan 14, 2016. (Photo: REUTERS/M Agung Rajasa/Antara Foto)
The country has banned support for IS and its ideology, but experts worry that Indonesian laws are not adequate for tackling the new threat and that the region is failing to pull together.
"We should be paying attention to what is going on in the region. ISIS is not a phenomenon that is far away. It's in our backyard, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Southern Philippines. We need to be aware of the returning foreign fighter phenomenon," said Dr Ramakrishna.
"A few hundred Southeast Asians have gone to fight for ISIS. The question is, once they come back, what are they going to do? Are they going to come back disillusioned and go back to civilian life? Or are they going to come back imbibed with the extremist ideology of ISIS and motivated by such an ideology cause destruction and mayhem and try to bring ISIS vision of a Southeast Asian province to fruition?"
Dr Ramakrishna said there seemed to be a degree of coordination and "fair bit of sophistication in the attacks". "This is not a lone wolf attack. This is clearly planned, orchestrated. The degree to which ISIS was involved? That is the question."
- CNA/agencies/sc
ISIS must come Orchard Road and give LHL something spectacular like 911 right at his Istana! I will be so happy SHIOK!
