Indonesia arrests 3 suspected militants

Indonesia arrests 3 suspected militants

In this May 25, 2017 photo, police officers inspect the site where explosions reportedly went off near a bus terminal in Jakarta. (AP photo)
In this May 25, 2017 photo, police officers inspect the site where explosions reportedly went off near a bus terminal in Jakarta. (AP photo)

JAKARTA - Indonesian police said they arrested more suspected militants on Monday following suicide bombings in Jakarta last week that killed three policemen.

Central Java Police spokesman Djarod Padakova said a man identified as Wahyudi was arrested early Monday in Sukoharjo district of West Java province and another man was caught hours later in the neighbouring district of Karanganyar.

National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said a third suspect was detained a day earlier in Cibubur, near Jakarta.

Authorities in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, have now arrested a total of six suspects since the May 24 attack in which two suicide bombers targeted police at a bus terminal in eastern Jakarta.

Three policemen and the two attackers were killed and 11 people, both police and civilians, were wounded.

Mr Wisasto said authorities are still investigating the three men recently arrested, but the suspect arrested on Sunday was believed to have been the last person to meet with one of the suicide bombers, Ahmad Sukri, just hours before the attack.

The May 24 attack was the deadliest in Jakarta since January 2016, when a suicide and gun strike in the central business district killed four civilians and four assailants.

National police chief Gen Tito Karnavian said DNA tests confirmed that the suicide bombers were Sukri, 32, and Ichwan Nurul Salam, 31, both from West Java.

Gen Karnavian said they were members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah (JAD), a network of about two dozen Indonesian extremist groups that formed in 2015 and pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

JAD, which Washington designated a terrorist group earlier this year, has been implicated in a number of attacks in Indonesia over the past year.

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