Three churches bombed in Indonesia, 13 killed

Surabaya, May 14

A family of six including two young daughters staged suicide bombings at three Indonesian churches during Sunday services, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens in attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
The bombings at three churches in Surabaya were Indonesia’s deadliest, as the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country grapples with homegrown militancy and rising intolerance towards religious minorities.
The bombers-a mother and father, two daughters aged nine and 12, and two sons aged 16 and 18 – were linked to local extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) which supports IS, said police chief Tito Karnavian.
Local media reports say they may have returned from Syria, where hundreds of Indonesians have flocked in recent years to fight alongside IS in its bid to carve out a caliphate ruled by strict Islamic law.
The mother, identified as Puji Kuswati, and her two daughters were wearing niqab face veils and had bombs strapped to their waists as they entered the grounds of the Kristen Indonesia Diponegoro Church and blew themselves up, Karnavian said.
The father, JAD cell leader Dita Priyanto, drove a bomb-laden car into the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church while his sons rode motorcycles into Santa Maria church, where they detonated explosives they were carrying, Karnavian said.
“All were suicide attacks but the types of bombs are different,” he said. The group, led by jailed radical Aman Abdurrahman, has been linked to several deadly incidents, including a 2016 gun and suicide attack in the capital Jakarta that left four attackers and four civilians dead.
The Pope offered support over “the severe attack against places of worship”, while President Joko Widodo called for Indonesians to “unite against terrorism”. “The state will not tolerate this act of cowardice,” he told reporters in Surabaya. In addition to the suicide blast police experts defused two unexploded bombs at the Surabaya Centre Pentecostal Church.
East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera confirmed the deaths of 13 people. Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 260 million people are Muslim, but there are significant numbers of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists. Concerns about sectarian intolerance have been on the rise, with churches targeted in the past.
In 2000 bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches and clergymen killed 19 people on Christmas Eve and injured scores more across the country.
The archipelago nation of some 17,000 islands has long struggled with Islamic militancy, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 foreign tourists.