Jakarta: Six suspected terrorists killed in a New Year’s Eve police raid near Jakarta had planned to carry out a string of attacks targeting the US embassy, a church and Buddhist temples, police said today.
Following a nine-hour gun battle with the six men in a house on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, police seized a hand-written document revealing the group’s targets, national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.
“Take your pistols, holy warriors, and prepare to attack the US embassy,” Amar said, reading from the document during a press conference. Suicide attacks were also planned, he said.
The document listed “hotels harbouring the CIA” and anti-terror police officers among targets, while National Police Chief Sutarman said the men also planned to attack a church and Buddhist temples to avenge anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
The men are believed to be behind a low-impact bombing on a Buddhist temple last August, which lightly injured one person, police said.
Police linked the men to a cell formerly headed by Abu Roban, a suspected militant killed in a raid last year, and Sutarman said the cell was suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda.
“One of the men, according to documents (seized), was also planning to go to Syria for jihad. He planned to carry out a suicide bombing there,” said Sutarman, who goes by one name.
Indonesia was rocked by several deadly terror attacks in the last decade, including the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
But only low-impact attacks have been executed in recent years as the country continues a clampdown on terrorism, having dismantled some of the deadliest networks.
