The police headquarters in Indonesia’s city of Surabaya was attacked on Monday by suspected militants who detonated explosives from a motorcycle, a day after suicide bombings at three churches in the city by members of one family killed at least eight people.
CCTV footage shows a car and two motorcycles approaching a security checkpoint at the police complex followed by an explosion from one of the motorbikes with at least two people aboard it. Indonesia’s police chief Tito Karnavian said the suicide attack, which wounded officers and civilians, was carried out by a family of five that included an eight-year-old child.
The family, riding on two motorbikes, blew themselves up at a checkpoint outside the police station, Mr. Karnavian told a news conference. The young child survived and is now recovering, he said.
The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the church attacks. Didn’t mention anything about families or children taking part and said there were only three attackers.
Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack happened in 2002, when bombs exploded on the tourist island of Bali, killing 202 people in one night, mostly foreigners. But the fact that children were involved in Sunday’s attacks in Surabaya shocked and angered the country.
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Jemaah Islamiyah, the network responsible for the Bali attacks, was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia’s counter-terrorism police with U.S. and Australian support. A new threat has emerged in recent years, inspired by IS attacks abroad.
Experts on militant networks have warned for several years that the estimated 1,100 Indonesians who travelled to Syria to join the IS posed a threat if they returned home.
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