Family, With Children in Tow, Carry Out Suicide Bombings at 3 Churches in Indonesia

[Showt Time]

BANDUNG, Indonesia — At least 11 people were killed on Sunday morning after suicide bombers detonated explosions at three churches in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, as worshipers gathered between services, the police said.

More than 41 other people were wounded by the attackers, at least one of whom was disguised as a churchgoer, said Frans Barung Mangera, a police spokesman. He said the number of casualties could increase as the police were still investigating the blasts

Mr. Mangera said the bombs had been detonated in different parts of the city within minutes of one another. He said the victims included many worshipers who were entering and leaving the churches between services. Two police officers were among the victims, he said.

Indonesia’s police chief, Tito Karnavian, said at a news conference that the bombings had been the work of one family, who set off three different kinds of bombs. The forensic laboratory is investigating what kind of explosives were used, he said.

He identified the man only as Dita and the woman as Puji Kuswanti, and said two sons, Yusuf, 18, and Alif, 16, were also involved. Two younger children were also seen in the company of the woman at one bombing site, the police said.

The Islams, according to the Islamist militant group’s news agency Amaq, but did not provide any evidence.ic State claimed responsibility for the bombing

 

In one attack, footage posted on YouTube showed what appeared to be an attacker on a scooter suddenly turning off a street and speeding toward a church before exploding.

The police said the father, driving a Toyota minivan, had dropped off the mother and the two younger children, ages 12 and 9, at the Indonesia Christian Church.

Kumparan News, an online news site, quoted the deputy police chief of Surabaya as saying that a woman with two children tried to force her way into the church after being stopped by a security guard. The woman then detonated the bomb in the yard outside the entrance, killing herself and the two children, the deputy police chief said.

The police chief said the sons had detonated a bomb at Santa Maria Church. Photographs from the site showed several people lying on the ground outside the church gate. Other images showed scattered debris and the police cordoning off the site.

The father crashed his vehicle into Surabaya Center Pentecostal Church, detonating an explosion, the police said. Investigators said they believed the bomb had been in the vehicle.

It was not immediately clear if the official death toll included the attackers, along with the younger children.

The bombings came as professed followers of the Islamic State have begun to make their presence felt in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation that is proud of its diversity and tolerance.

Surabaya, located on the eastern side of the island of Java, has a significant Christian minority that is about 11 percent of the city’s po[CENSORED]tion of almost three million.

This month, inmates who said they were followers of the Islamic State rioted in a high-security detention center outside of Jakarta, the capital. Five guards were killed before counterterrorism officers stormed the compound.

In 2016, the Islamic State claimed its first attack in Southeast Asia, when militants attacked a police post and shopping center in downtown Jakarta with homemade guns and bombs.Churches have also been targeted by other extremists. On Christmas Eve in 2000, nearly simultaneous attacks on churches in Jakarta and several other cities killed about 20 people. A local group with links to Al Qaeda later claimed credit.Ansyaad Mbai, a former leader of Indonesia’s counterterror agency, said he believed that the tight coordination of Sunday’s attacks suggested that they were the work of a single group, which might have sleepers cells in Indonesia.“This is a series of planned attacks that are aimed at delegitimizing the government,” he said. He suggested that the attacks might have been the work of local extremist groups like the Jamaah Anshar Daulah, which have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.