Indonesia thwarts ISIS attack

Indonesian police reported this Monday the arrest of eight individuals, members of an extremist group linked to the Islamic State (ISIS), who were planning terrorist attacks.

Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said the arrests were conducted over the weekend during anti-terrorist squad operations (Densus 88) in the city of Bekasi, near Jakarta, and in Bitung, North Sulawesi province.

The detainees are members of the extremist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State, which operates in the province of Lampung on the island of Sumatra, Yuwono stressed.

Yuwono said a large amount of triacetone triperoxide, a highly explosive material, were seized, and other materials commonly used in terrorist attacks.

The suspects probably intended to detonate several bombs in crowded places when the official results of the April 17 elections are announced in two weeks.

Among those detained is JAD leader in Lampung Abu Faizah, who was deeply involved in the January 2016 bomb attacks in central Jakarta (eight fatalities) and in a riot of Islamist prisoners in West Java in May, 2018, in which five police officers and one rebel died.

Source: Plenglish